June 6, 1944 was the day of the Normandy landings (D-Day) of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II.
Today’s blogpost is sharing this website by PBS with letters written by American soldiers in Europe after D-Day.
These letters are included in the “Letters from the Front” part of the American Experience D-Day website by PBS for the film D-Day. The site talks about how letters sent home were often censored and even though the families and friends of soldiers often did not know their location their words written in their letters convey the range of emotions experienced by the men who fought on D-Day.
“The largest seaborne invasion in history, the operation began the invasion of German-occupied western Europe, led to the liberation of France from Nazi control, and contributed to the Allied victory.” This is a link to read more about the Normandy Landings, thanks to Wikipedia.
Reading the first letter that is posted on the PBS site (from France, July 22, 1944) the letter writer talks about the cemetery near them that has grown and it got me crying in reading the poignancy of it. The American Experience D-Day web site is well done (on Twitter @AmExperiencePBS) On the left nav bar it also has links to take you to The Film & More, Special Features, Timeline, Maps, People & Events.
The words on this plaque “In Memory of the Allied Invasion of Europe on 6th June 1944” is how I’m closing out today’s blog post. Thank you for reading today’s post with me as we honor their memory.
