Hell Let Loose: 80 Years of Allies Landing in Normandy

Just after dawn, at 6:30 am, the sea landings began, focusing on five code-named beaches: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. Inland operations were also part of the operation; US Army Rangers scaled cliffs to destroy German gun positions, and overnight parachute landings were made on key German positions.

There were about 50,000 German soldiers facing the Allied armada.

The Allied divisions, comprised of the US, the British, and the Canadian troops, among others, under the supreme command of US General Dwight Eisenhower, broke through the fortified coast, overcame Nazi positions, and moved east on a broad front toward the Red Army, which was rushing toward Berlin.

In all, over two million Allied soldiers, sailors, pilots, medics, and other personnel from twelve different countries participated in Operation Overlord to liberate western France from Nazi rule. Operation Overlord came to an end on August 30, 1944, when German forces crossed the Seine River and headed east.

Take a look at these historic photos about how the military operation bringing an end to a Nazi rule over Europe went.

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US reinforcements wade through the surf from a landing craft in the days following D-Day and the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France at Normandy in June 1944 during World War II. (Bert Brandt/Pool via AP, File)

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A woman knits near a tent for refugees, among the ruins of Mortain, Normandy, northern France in October 1944, during World War Two. By the morning of June 7, 1944, some 3,000 Normandy civilians had already perished under Allied bombs, as many as had died on the beaches the day before, a strategy that also disfigured the towns of Normandy. (Photo by AFP)

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The American Sherman tank is now appearing on the British front in Normandy mounting the British 17-pounder gun. This conversion has been carried out in the United Kingdom, and the Sherman with the 17-pounder is proving a match for its German counterpart. Sherman 17-pounder tanks advancing through a Normandy village towards Caen on July 17, 1944. (AP Photo)

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French refugees, including women and children, gather around British soldiers at a Civil Affairs Feeding Center in the Normandy beachhead sector who are supplying hot food on June 16, 1944. Many of the refugees had not eaten for three or more days. (AP Photo)

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American reinforcements, arrive at the beaches of Normandy from a Coast Guard landing barge into the surf on the French coast on June 23, 1944, during World War II. They will reinforce fighting units that secured the Norman beachhead and spread north toward Cherbourg. (AP Photo/U.S. COAST GUARD)

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Paratroopers of the Allied land on La Manche coast, on June 6, 1944, after Allied forces stormed the Normandy beaches during D-Day. (Photo by US National Archives / AFP)

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German prisoners of war are led away by Allied forces from Utah Beach, near Sainte-Mere-Eglise, on June 6, 1944, during landing operations on the Normandy coast, France.(AP Photo, File)

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Rubble and wreckage fills a section of the French city of Caen, in Normandy on July 15, 1944, which was captured from the Germans by British and Canadian troops. Standing in the background is the church of St. Pierre, which was built in the 14th century. (AP Photo)

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Members of Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service, the Nursing Service which is attached to the British Army, have arrived in France to assist in tending the wounded. A truck load of British Army nurses on their way to the Normandy front on June 23, 1944. (AP Photo)

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Picture taken on June 1944 in Normandy showing Allied forces' military planes bombing enemy boats in order to prepare the allied troops landing aimed at fighting the German Wehrmacht as part of the Second World War. (Photo by US National Archives / AFP)

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Photo taken in June 1944 shows the CWACs, Canadian Women's Army Corps, taking a rest in Normandy. The Canadian Women's Army Corps was a non-combatant branch of the Canadian Army for women, established during the Second World War, with the purpose of releasing men from those non-combatant roles in the Canadian armed forces as part of expanding Canada's war effort. (Photo by AFP)

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This is the scene along a section of Omaha Beach in June 1944, during Operation Overlord, the code name for the Allied invasion at the Normandy coast in France during World War II. Landing crafts put troops and supply on shore at Omaha, one of five landing beaches. Seen in the background is part of the large fleet that brought the Allied troops across the English Channel. Barrage balloons are flying in the air, designed to entangle low-flying enemy aircraft in their cables. (AP Photo)

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A French dairymaid leads her cows across a meadow filled with RAF, 1,000 lb, bombs in Normandy, France in August 1944. These bombs were not fused, they have just been unloaded and will later be stacked. (AP Photo)

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Oblique photographic-reconnaissance vertical, taken from 800 feet, showing part of Landing Zone 'N', north of Ranville, Normandy, on the day following Operation MALLARD: the airborne landing of 6th Airlanding Brigade and the Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment in the evening of 6 June 1944. Airspeed Horsa troop-carrying gliders and one damaged GAL Hamilcar tank-carrying glider (lower right) litter this part of the LZ close to the Ranville-Salanelles road.

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Picture taken in September 1944 at Cherbourg, North of France, showing French supporters and voluntary soldiers making the victory sign and sitting on a truck with the Cross of Lorraine and the slogan "Vive De Gaulle," after the liberation of the city during the Second World War. (Photo by AFP)