Fifty-eight years ago, on June 6, 1944, Allied naval forces, air power, and ground troops landed on the coast of France in Normandy. It was D-Day the invasion to liberate Europe. Its goal: the destruction of Adolph Hitler's Third Reich.
British and Canadian troops fought on beaches code named Gold, Juno and Sword. But the fiercest and bloodiest struggle on D-Day was on Omaha Beach which along with Utah Beach were the sites of the American landings.
VOA's Anthony Collins visited Omaha Beach as part of historian Stephen Ambrose's "D-Day to the Rhine" tour. Here are some pages from both his reporter's notebook and from history on this anniversary edition of Dateline narrated by VOA's Andre De Nesnera.