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Soviet troops advance into Poland.
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Allies land in Anzio Italy.
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First major daylight bombing raid on Berlin by the Allies.
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British drop 3000 tons of bombs during an air raid on Hamburg, Germany.
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Allies invaded the beaches with over 5,000 ships, 11,000 airplanes, over 150,000 service men, but only after weeks of preparation. Men would run onto the beaches with as much as eighty pounds of equipment on their backs.
The way most men would get to the cliffs is by using this method. “The boat ramp goes down, then jump, swim, run, and crawl to the cliffs.” -
U.S. Troops begin landing (Approximately 6:30 AM) at the two key beaches with the code names of “Omaha” and “Utah"
150,000 Allied Expeditionary Force lands in Normandy, France -
Around 7:25 AM allied forces, British and Canadian armies, invade the shores of "Gold" and "Juno"
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June 7th 1944 "Lt. Horace Henderson of the Sixth Engineer Special Brigade landed on Omaha Beach. Going in on his Higgins boat, "I noticed that nothing moved on the beach except one bulldozer. The beach was covered with debris, sunken craft and wrecked vehicles. We saw many bodies in the water... We jumped into chest high water and waded ashore. Then we saw that the beach was literally covered with the bodies of American soldiers wearing the blue and gray patches of the 29th Infantry Division."
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"We thought it was going to be murder but it wasn't. To show you how easy it was, I ate my bar of chocolate. In every other operational trip, I sweated so much the chocolate they gave us melted in my breast pocket." — Frank Scherschel describing his experiences photographing the Normandy invasion from the air, before he joined Allied troops heading inland Direct quote from http://life.time.com/history/d-day-rare-color-photos/#19
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Allies start bombing on German's from recaptured airfields on France.
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Americans on the Normandy beaches code-named "Utah" and "Omaha" join forces and move inland. In Distomo, Boeotia Prefecture, Greece 218 men, women and children are massacred by German troops.
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Hitler unleashes his "secret weapon." Over the next couple of days Hitler will drop V-1 rockets all over England killing about 5,500.
1st V-1 rocket assault on London -
Soviet troops liberate first concentration camp at Majdanek.
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Anne Frank and family arrested by the Gestapo in Amsterdam, Holland.
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Allies liberate Athens; Rommel commits suicide.
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Last use of gas chambers at Auschwitz.
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French capture Strasbourg.
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Civil War in Greece; Athens placed under martial law.
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German army launched a counteroffensive that was intended to cut through the Allied forces in a manner that would turn the tide of the war in Hitler's favor. The battle that ensued is known historically as The Battle of the Bulge. The courage and fortitude of the American Soldier was tested against great adversity. Nevertheless, the quality of his response ultimately meant the victory of freedom over tyranny.
