Today is the 70th anniversary of D-Day, June 6, 1944. Let's not forget what happened that day.

In the military, D-Day is the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. The best known D-Day is June 6, 1944 — the day of the Normandy landings — initiating the Western Allied effort to liberate mainland Europe from Nazi occupation during World War II. D-Day for the invasion of Normandy by the Allies was originally set for June 5, 1944, but bad weather and heavy seas caused Gen. Dwight D Eisenhower to delay until June 6 and that date has been popularly referred to ever since by the short title "D-Day".

The Invasion of Normandy was the invasion and establishment of Western Allied forces in Normandy, during Operation Overlord in 1944 during World War II, the largest amphibious invasion to ever take place.

D-Day, the date of the initial assaults, was Tuesday 6 June 1944 and Allied land forces that saw combat in Normandy on that day came from Canada, the Free French Forces, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The Normandy invasion began with overnight parachute and glider landings, massive air attacks and naval bombardments. In the early morning, amphibious landings on five beaches codenamed Juno, Gold, Omaha, Utah, and Sword began and during the evening the remaining elements of the parachute divisions landed.

Jim 'Pee Wee' Martin, a 93-year-old WWII veteran paratrooper, just did the same jump out of a plane into Normandy that he did for D-Day 70 years ago when he was 23-years-old. But he says this jump was much easier because "there wasn't anybody shooting at me today."



During World War II, Martin was a private first class with the elite 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. He wanted to make the jump again — for the 70th anniversary of D-Day — because he said there's no other 93-year-old guy in the unit who could do it. He'd do it for those who can't.

RESPECT for the man :)

Related posts:
June 5, 2009 – Getting ready for D-Day (group pictures of 1/6 scale WWII American paratroopers HERE)
June 6, 2009 – June 6, 1944: D-Day post in my toy blog HERE
June 7, 2009 – Dragon Models Limited (DML) WWII US 29th Infantry Division soldier "Mike Connolly" (D-Day) reviewed HERE
June 8, 2009 – BBi Elite Force WWII 63rd Anniversary of D-Day Limited Edition Private Vince Neiheisel "Vince" posted HERE
June 9, 2009 – Getting ready for the break out posted HERE