Museum Exterior 
Footage of the museum's exterior features, including a view of the Louisiana Memorial Pavillion.

Barrage Balloons
African American soldiers of the 320th Anti-Aircraft Barrage Balloon Battalion, 1st U.S. Army prepare to deploy a barrage balloon on Utah Beach during the Normandy invasion. U.S. forces were racially segregated until after World War II, and the 320th was one of several African American units that landed on D-Day.

Build-up to D-Day
Troops wait for arrival on Normandy beaches as part of the build-up to D-Day.

Chaplain
A chaplain serves over dead Airborne troops following the June 6 D-Day invasion.

Crossed Rifles
Crossed rifles in the sand form a tribute to a soldier who never made it off of Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944.

D-Day C47
Paratroopers and aircrew of Pathfinder Team #2 of the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division prepare for takeoff on June 5, 1944. The Douglas C-47 in the background now hangs aloft at The National World War II Museum in New Orleans on permanent display.

D-Day Glider
Many airborne troops landed in Normandy in specially designed gliders that could transport soldiers, jeeps and alight artillery. Gliders were towed across the English Channel. Over Normandy, tow ropes were released and the glider descended to earth.

D-Day LCVP
Assault troops in an LCVP anxiously prepare to unload on Omaha beach. The LCVP, also known as a “Higgins boat” was designed and built in New Orleans. Eisenhower credited the design, which allowed landings in shallow water, to the Allied victory in WWII.

D-Day Nurse
An Army nurse works in a field hospital. Nurses began landing on the Normandy beachhead four days after the initial invasion. The first to arrive were members of the 42nd and 45th Field Hospitals and the 91st and 128th Evacuation Hospitals.

D-Day Paratrooper
A heavily burdened paratrooper, armed with a Thompson M1 submachine gun, climbs into a transport plane bound for France.

Eisenhower
General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, speaks with Lieutenant Wallace C. Strobel, a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division, at Greenham Common airfield on the evening of June 5, 1944.

GIs and Medics
The men of the 16th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Division huddle under chalk cliffs at the edge of Omaha beach near Colleville-sur-Mer on the morning of June 6, 1944. The men, some wounded, are regrouping before moving inland.

LCVP
Assault troops approach Omaha Beach, June 6, 1944. The original caption for this iconic image read “Landing on the coast of France under heavy Nazi machine gun fire are these American soldiers, shown just as they left the ramp of a Coast Guard landing boat.”

Omaha Ducks
American troops in DUKWs (commonly known as Ducks) and halftracks going ashore on Omaha Beach.

Omaha, June 7, 1944
American GIs heading toward the shoreline of Omaha Beach around June 7, 1944.

Omaha LCVP
Tightly packed troops crouch inside their LCVP as it plows through a wave. In the distance is the coast of Normandy.

Omaha Soldier
A U.S. soldier with a 1917A1 machine gun moves inland from Omaha beach.

Tom Blakey
Tom Blakey, a D-Day veteran, was a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne. Blakey now volunteers his time at The National World War II Museum where he interacts with visitors of all ages.

Tom Blakey
Tom Blakey, a D-Day veteran, was a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne. Blakey now volunteers his time at The National World War II Museum where he interacts with visitors of all ages.