The country that the boys on the beaches of Normandy fought for no longer exists.
On June 6, 1944 — 80 years ago, to the date — some 73,000 American soldiers landed on the beaches of Normandy, stormed into the Nazi machine gun fire, scaled the cliffs beyond the sand, and began the long, grueling task of taking back a continent. 2,501 of them — many teenagers, some in their early 20s — would never see the other side. “We were all kids between the ages of 17 and 24,” recalled one American veteran. When their boat touched the beach, “it was like a movie…the horizon just erupted.” “I didn’t know what was happening,” said another. “I only knew I had to do what I had to do.”
Pick an allied nation and the same holds true.
