50 facts and figures about D-Day Boston 25 News [Video]

Five years into World War II, the Allies were squeezing the Nazis from two sides. In Western Europe, Allied forces had managed to slow Adolf Hitler’s ruthless expansion across the continent. Meanwhile, to the East, the Russians had successfully locked German forces into a brutal war of attrition. Nazi Germany, however, was still firmly secure in its continental fortress. And scores of occupied nations suffered as a result.

Then came D-Day.

On June 6, 1944, Allied planes, ships, vehicles, supplies, and men from the United Kingdom, United States, France, and Canada stormed the coast of occupied France’s Normandy region in numbers so staggering they’re difficult to comprehend. The largest amphibious operation in the history of warfare, the Normandy landings—better known as D-Day—were years in the making.

Supported by meticulous planning, cunning deception, and pitch-black humor, D-Day marked a gargantuan effort to dislodge and dismantle one of the most effective war machines ever assembled. On that gloomy spring day in 1944, Normandy …