Sixty years ago today 150,000 American, British, Canadian and French troops landed on the beaches on Normandy at a cost of 5,000 lives on the first day alone. This day is a good day to remember their sacrifice.

In this the 60th anniversary of the landing I here a lot of mention of the invasion at Normandy as the most pivotal battle of the war. When we talk historically at what point in World War II the defeat of Germany became inevitable there is probably a better argument that the turning point of the war was the battle of Stalingrad or of the battle of the Atlantic. Even without the Normandy landings Germany might eventually have been defeated. But what a different fate for Europe if the forces of Churchill and Roosevelt had met the forces of Stalin even one hundred or two hundred miles further west. The sacrifice of those made at D-Day reshaped Europe into a free Europe. Certainly a Europe that does not always agree with the United States, but isn’t that what freedom is all about.

Check out the information from the D-Day museumin New Orleans, home of the Higgins boat.

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