June 6,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, On this 73rd anniversary of D-Day let us remember, and honor, the soldiers who gave their lives for the freedoms of France and rest of Europe.
On June 6, 1944, more than 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline, to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which, “we will accept nothing less than full victory.” More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day’s end, the Allies gained a foot-hold in Continental Europe. The cost in lives on D-Day was high. More than 9,000 Allied Soldiers were killed or wounded, but their sacrifice allowed more than 100,000 Soldiers to begin the slow, hard slog across Europe, to defeat Adolf Hitler’s crack troops.
It was the beginning of the end for the Third Reich and a major turning point to free Europe and show that freedom can prevail over totalitarianism.