D-Day Normandy, France 6th June 1944 - The day that turned the tide

Photo. Monument Pointe du Hoc.  

It’s hard to picture the chaos that unfolded here - where so many young soldiers gave everything. The sand holds their memory. So does the silence.

Some sites you can visit where it all unfolded:

• Juno Beach, where Canadian troops faced fierce resistance.
• Omaha Beach - nicknamed Bloody Omaha - where American soldiers pushed through brutal gunfire and crashing waves.
• Pegasus Bridge, where paratroopers struck under cover of darkness. 
• Sainte-Mère-Église, the first town liberated - and a place made famous by the real-life heroes of Band of Brothers.

History feels different when you're standing on the ground where it happened. Visiting Normandy today, even after all these years, feels deeply personal. You don’t need to be a history expert to feel the weight of what happened here. The beaches, the towns, the silence - they all tell the story. It hits you in the chest and stays with you. 
Some places are almost frozen in time. Towns still rise Allied flags as a gesture of thanks — small but powerful signs that people remember. They haven’t forgotten who came, who fought, and who never made it home.

Omaha Beach is one of the most well-known landing sites. When you walk along its wide, quiet shore today, it’s hard to imagine the chaos and loss that unfolded here. Waves roll in gently now, sweeps over a beach once soaked in blood. Standing there is surreal - the peace you see doesn’t erase the violence that happened, but it makes you pause. Right there, on that sand, brave young men ran straight into enemy fire.

A modern sculpture called Les Braves rises from the sand. It honours the courage of the American troops who landed there. And up on the cliffs, you can still see the remains of German bunkers. They’re cracked and weathered, but they’re still there - a grim reminder of how brutal the fight was.

Above the beach, the Normandy American Cemetery sits quietly. Almost 10,000 white marble headstones stretch out in perfect rows. It’s impossible not to feel something. There’s a reflecting pool, a chapel, a memorial wall with names of the missing - and a visitor centre filled with real stories, letters, photos, and artifacts. Some people cry. Most just stand in silence. You leave changed.

For those who want to understand more - or feel more - there are films that bring it all to life:

• Saving Private Ryan (1998) — An intense, emotional take on the invasion, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks.
• The Longest Day (1962) — A classic, with stars like John Wayne and Sean Connery, showing the scale of the operation.
• Band of Brothers (2001) — A gripping HBO miniseries based on the real-life Easy Company.

There are also powerful documentaries like:

• D-Day: The Untold Stories (2019) — Real accounts from veterans.
• The True Glory (1945) — A wartime film, raw and emotional, made right after the events it covers.

Being in Normandy, watching these films, or simply remembering what happened on the 6th June 1944 - it’s all part of honouring the past. It’s about sacrifice and courage. And it’s a reminder that peace comes at a cost.

Even so many years have gone, the D-Day still matters today. It must never be forgotten. The military operation on 6th June 6 1944 was a fight against tyranny, oppression, and the belief that freedom is worth fighting for. The world came together to push back against hatred and occupation. And it paid a heavy price for peace.

Now, more than 80 years later, we’re seeing rising tensions again. In parts of the world, wars are already happening. Borders are being tested. Democracies feel fragile. The headlines are full of echoes we hoped we'd never hear again.

Walking the beaches of Normandy today - standing where so many young men died for a better future - reminds us of what’s worth protecting. Peace is not permanent. Freedom is not guaranteed. It has to be protected, defended, and remembered.

Stein Morten Lund, 6th July 2025

Additional information

Read more about the military operation Normandy landings on Wikipedia. 

The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D-Day (after the military term), it is the largest seaborne invasion in history. The operation began the liberation of France, and the rest of Western Europe, and laid the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western Front.