When was D-Day and how many soldiers died during the Normandy landings?

Tomorrow marks the 80th Anniversary of D-Day, a crucial battle of World War II that shifted the balance in favor of the Allied Powers. This event involved one of the largest maritime invasions in human history, with 150,000 soldiers from eight countries taking part. To sustain the invasion and ongoing fighting, supply lines had to be established in mainland Europe. The success of the battles in Normandy was vital for launching further attacks against the Axis powers.

The human toll of D-Day

The invasion of France turned the Western Front into a significant threat for Germany, which was already engaged in conflict with the Soviets on the Eastern Front. Although the operation was successful, the Allies suffered an estimated 4,414 casualties, including 2,501 Americans, and not all bodies could be recovered. Subsequent fierce battles resulted in the deaths of 173,000 Allied forces and left over 150,000 more soldiers wounded. For the millions of loved ones back on the other side of the Atlantic, these losses were tragedies. Over the course of the war, 416,800 American soldiers were killed, and their sacrifice was felt most deeply by the soldiers who fought alongside those who perished.

Those who the Allies fought for

As the war came to an end, nearly 11 months after D-Day, Allied forces began to uncover Nazi death camps and the heinous crimes against humanity that had been carried out. Six million Jewish people were killed in the Holocaust, alongside 7.8 million Soviet civilians and prisoners of war. And these were not the Nazi’s only victims, millions of Romani, Poles, disabled people, and other political dissidents and ethnic miniroties were killed, with the total number of deaths during the horrific period estimated to be around 17 million.