“You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hope and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.” – General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Order of the Day, June 6, 1944 By May 1944, more than 2.8 million Allied troops, with 4,000 American, British and Canadian ships, were amassed in southern England, waiting to cross the English Channel in the largest seaborne invasion of history. More that 1,200 planes stood ready to deliver specialist airborne troops behind enemy lines, to silence German ground resistance and destroy local infrastructure, and to dominate the skies of the battle theatre. D-Day provides a photographic exploration of this monumental military and political event that helped bring about the end of Nazi Germany’s four-year occupation of Europe. The book is divided into chapters covering the first days of the landings on the five beaches: Omaha, Utah, Gold, Juno and Sword; separate chapters cover the airborne landings of the famous American 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions and the British 6th Airborne, as well as the crucial help of French Resistance fighters in providing intelligence and disrupting German communications and supply lines.

Stephen Hart is a Senior Lecturer with special responsibilities at the Department of War Studies, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He has been published widely on military history topics, particularly British and German operations during WWII.