First Wave: At 6:30 a.m. on June 6, 1944, the 1st & 29th Infantry Divisions landed on this section of Omaha Beach while sustaining heavy fire from the dunes above.

Sergeant Henry Bare remembered the sickening carnage he witnessed on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944: “My radio man had his head blown off three yards from me … the beach was covered with bodies, men with no legs, no arms...God it was awful.”

Urging his men to get off the beach and up the Colleville-sur-Mer draw to the bluffs above, Colonel George Taylor, 16th Infantry Regiment, U.S. 1st Division said, “There are two kinds of people who are staying on this beach, the dead and those who are going to die — now let’s get the hell out of here!"

By 10 a.m. on June 6, American forces suffered approximately 2000 casualties (dead and wounded) on Omaha Beach.

Combat Medic, Ray Lambert: “Corpses, men I saw less than 24 hours before, floated in the water or lay on the beach." Private Hal Baumgarten: "One of my buddies was praying with rosary beads and was cut in half with a machine gun." Baumgarten's eyewitness accounts from D-Day were featured in the 1998 film, "Saving Private Ryan."

Combat Medic Ray Lambert: “Looking for someplace safe I spotted a rock, really a stubble of concrete nearby. The rock was the only shelter. I pointed injured men in that direction and left to help others. I sent the walking wounded to that rock only to realize a machine gun was zeroing in on that area." This is the rock described by Ray Lambert. Today a plaque commemorates combat medics who treated severely wounded men at this location.

The stretch of Omaha Beach that Combat Medic Ray Lambert landed on was ironically code named, "Easy Red." No part of the assault on this beach was easy and the only red was the blood of young American soldiers.

D-Day survivor Hal Baumgarten: “Where tourists and vacationers see pleasant waves, I see the faces of drowning men.”

A visit to the Normandy invasion sites today deepens an understanding of that which constitutes duty, honor and most importantly, sacrifice.

The 12th century church of Notre-Dame de l'Assomption de Colleville in Colleville-sur-Mer was partially destroyed in June, 1944, during fighting for Omaha Beach.

Innocent to the carnage that occurred on the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc on D-Day, a young boy climbs into a bunker. Estimates of German casualties within the first 24 hours range between 4,000 and 9,000 killed, wounded or missing. Approximately 200,000 German soldiers were also taken prisoner by Allied troops.

Pointe du Hoc was the highest point between the American landings at Utah Beach to the west and Omaha Beach to the east. The German army fortified the area with concrete casemates, which still draw onlookers 75 years after the D-Day invasion.

The coastal cliffs between Pointe du Hoc and Omaha Beach. Army Ranger Len Lomell who scaled Pointe du Hoc and destroyed German 88mm guns: "There was a lot of death. I lost half my guys."

Just 2 of 29 Sherman tanks made it onto Omaha Beach to support the 1st wave of 700 men from 24 landing craft. The remaining tanks were destroyed or sunk in rough seas along with their crews, during the first hours of the invasion.

Pvt. John Steele was an American paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division, whose parachute came down on one of the church spires in the French town of Sainte-Mère-Église on D-Day, suspending him above the town for hours. In his honor, Church of Sainte-Mère-Église has honored Steele forever with a snagged parachute and a life-sized effigy that hangs from its straps.