Living History: In the Footsteps of Heroes: D-Day Plus 1
On June 6, 1944, Operation Overlord went forward with the D-Day landing that ranks as the boldest and most successful large-scale invasion in military history. Ted Fitzgerald continues his journey to relive D-Day 74 years later with living history reenactors as they retrace the footsteps of the Allied Forces that stormed the beaches of Normandy to break Hitler's stranglehold on France and liberate Europe. Roughly 160,000 Allied troops crossed the English Channel, supported by seven thousand ships and boats, and landed on the coast of Normandy. The seaborne invasion included nearly 5,000 landing and assault craft, 289 escort vessels, and 277 minesweepers. They established a beachhead from which the Germans were unable to dislodge them. Within ten days, there were half a million troops ashore, and within three weeks there were two million.