D-Day, June 6, 1944:  it was the biggest amphibious operation in history.  German Field Marshal Rommel, declared, "the enemy must be annihilated before he reaches our main battlefield," the Allied Forces undertook a massive invasion of the German-occupied coast of Normandy, France.  First, there was the aerial onslaught by British and American airborne divisions, then the landing of the American, British, and Canadian seaborne troops.  Over 150,000 Allied troops took the fight to the enemy, their incursion paving the way to their ultimate victory over Nazi tyranny.  This book tells the story of those who lived and fought through this historic conflict.  In first-person accounts of the Normandy landings, soldiers recreate the harrowing, world-changing drama of taking the beaches of France, dropping from the sky, wading out of landing craft, fighting to survive and, in the process, keeping alight the hopes of humanity.