Friday, June 6, marks 81 years since the allied forces of World War II stormed the beaches of Normandy, France on D-Day.

The amphibious assault – codenamed Operation Overlord – involved landing more than 155,000 Allied soldiers on the French beaches, resulting in 4,427 casualties – according to the National D-Day Memorial Foundation .

The plan for the attack across the English Channel was put in motion at the Tehran Conference in 1943, where Allied leaders chose American general Dwight Eisenhower as Supreme Allied Commander for the operation.

Omaha Beach, the second to the west of the five landing beaches, saw the bloodiest fighting of the battle, with American forces seeing 2,400 casualties – according to Encyclopedia Brittanica .

The invasion marked the turning point in the

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