what great historical event happened yesterday?

a few hints ..... with these fotos taken last month when we were there visiting ...

Arromanches ... where huge slabs of concrete remain that were once used to transport tanks and military vehicles ashore

Here we're standing next to one of those concrete slabs - and they're HUGE! One can only appreciate the scale and magnitude of this operation when you visit these sites and see what the allies were up against.

This is the cemetery at Omaha beach, where 9,000 American soldiers are buried. Every headstone carries its own story .... whether it's a soldier that died on the day of the invasion, the day before the war ended, or somewhere inbetween.

a pillbox at Pointes du' Hoc .... where Rudder's Rangers scaled the cliffs, against all odds, and eventually took control. Now there's a colony of Mew gulls nesting on those very same cliffs ... and barn swallows nesting in the bunkers.

Obviously the kids missed a lot of the details, but they absorbed a great deal of history during our stay in Normandy, and they will never forget the breadth and expansiveness of the beaches, which seemed to go on and on endlessly, and where the allies fought and died so courageously.