If the US and its western Allies wanted to win this war as rapidly as possible, they couldn’t sit around and wait: not for a naval blockade, or for strategic bombing to work, or for the Soviets.

Rob Citino, Samuel Zemurray Stone Senior Historian of the Museum, lists his favorite books on D-Day.

On June 6, 1944, the Allies launched the long-anticipated invasion of Normandy, France. Soldiers from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and other Allied nations faced Hitler's formidable Atlantic Wall as they landed on the beaches of Normandy.

The M1942 jump jacket and trousers worn by Lieutenant Alphonse Czekanski for the Normandy invasion join the Museum's displays. 

The Allied invasion of Western Europe was code named Operation Overlord. It required years of planning, training, and supplying by the United States and Great Britain, and was one of the most heavily guarded secrets of the war.