40 Rarely Seen Photos That Capture What D-Day Was Really Like

If it weren’t for the sea of soldiers, this would be quite a picturesque French scene. But there’s no ignoring the reality of the situation here. Men of Britain’s 50th Infantry Division have just landed on Gold Beach, and they mean business. They’re heading to a village called Crépon, where they will force the Germans to retreat southwards. After that, the Brits will continue their advance through the Normandy countryside – and onwards to victory.

This G.I. enjoys some shut-eye in his cramped foxhole. It’s hard to tell, but are those boots his, or those of a buddy crammed into the dugout with him? There are certainly two sets of kit visible. Either way, it seems no chances are being taken. Just look at the two pairs of hand grenades on the edge of this makeshift bunker!

The tide is out, which probably makes things a little easier for these Canadian soldiers as they trudge across the sands at Juno Beach, one of the five main D-Day landing areas. The seaside town in the background is Bernières-sur-Mer – in more peaceful times a popular coastal resort. And as you can see, no weapons are drawn. That’s because the first troops to get to Juno at 6:30 a.m. had met only fairly flimsy German defenses. 

This iconic image is appropriately captioned "Into the Jaws of Death." It was taken by Chief Photographer’s Mate Robert F. Sargent and, quite rightly, went on to become one of the most widely shared photos of the D-Day landings. It shows troops of the U.S. Army First Infantry Division storming ashore from their landing craft at Omaha Beach. They were met by fierce machine-gun fire but still pushed the Germans back from their defensive positions. 

One of the officers in this shot is Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, a highly lauded German military leader. He was given command of the Atlantic Wall – the defensive positions along France’s Normandy coast – which he’s seen strolling among here. These arrangements of poles on the beach were nicknamed “Rommel’s asparagus” by Allied soldiers. The date here is April 1944, and soon said troops would be assaulting these very beaches.

These G.I.s look relaxed as they chat with Red Cross volunteer Mary Jane Cooke. But it’s difficult to believe that the soldiers were completely calm. After all, they are waiting in line to embark on their D-Day trip across the English Channel to Normandy. Things there will be far from tranquil.

These British troops seen struggling through the sea with their bicycles aren’t landing on the shores of Normandy. This is actually a training exercise on England’s south coast at Hayling Island, which overlooks the English Channel. And while this image depicts only a simulated conflict, these men will be going into battle for real in just a matter of weeks... bicycles and all.

This image shows a large crowd of captured Axis prisoners somewhere in France in June 1944. As the Allied forces fought their way from the beaches of Normandy across French territory, increasing numbers of Axis troops surrendered. Some 4,000 men were captured on D-Day itself. And by the end of June, over 47,000 had raised the white flag.

These men of the 16th Infantry Regiment have just come ashore at Omaha Beach, where German resistance was strong. The soldiers take cover at the bottom of some cliffs, no doubt settling their nerves before the battle ahead. And who can blame them? Total American casualties – that is, men missing, wounded or killed – amounted to some 2,400 at Omaha on D-Day.

There was fighting and horror aplenty as the Allies fought their way from the Normandy beaches and on through France. Even so, there were moments when the troops could take time out, however briefly. These G.I.s of the 80th Infantry Division are in the French town of Argentan, about 40 miles inland from the Normandy coast. The accordionist is one H.C. Medley, and he and his buddies had captured the town on August 20, 1944.

These men of the US Army 2nd Infantry Division leave Omaha Beach behind them as they march past a fallen German bunker. It’s June 7, 1944, and the fierce beachhead fighting of the day before is over. It had been no picnic. The coast was strongly defended from its clifftops, with the attackers’ 2,400 casualties proving the highest number of any of D-Day’s five amphibious assault sectors. 

It’s smiles all around in this July 1944 image as a B-26 Marauder bomber crew returns from a presumably successful mission to France. Airpower played a key part in the Normandy invasion, of course. From April 1, 1944, up until D-Day, some 11,000 Allied planes flew roughly 200,000 missions. And these flights destroyed key Axis infrastructure in France and beyond with some 195,000 tons of bombs. 

This image shows British commandos of the 1st Special Service Brigade as they approach France’s Sword Beach. In theory, these men were supposed to arrive just after the coastline had been cleared of Germans and to immediately advance inland. In fact, fighting continued as they disembarked. The commandos were involved in a fierce close-quarters battle with the German defenders before eventually overwhelming them. 

Under the command of Texan Colonel James E. Rudder, 225 men of the 2nd Ranger Battalion attacked the sheer 90-foot cliffs of Pointe du Hoc at Omaha Beach. Their mission was to disable the heavy enemy artillery perched on the summit. It took the Rangers two days of intense combat to overwhelm the German resistance and reach their goal. Here we see the Rangers tidying up after their victory.

These two M4 Sherman tanks belong to the U.S. 1st Army’s 741st Tank Battalion. They’re loaded aboard a transport vessel ready to cross the English Channel and help out with the Normandy invasion. But what are those strange steel structures to the rear of the vehicles? Well, those are in fact snorkels. These prevent their engines from flooding and stalling as they drive through deep water up to the beaches.

By the time of World War II, Scottish soldiers were no longer supposed to play the bagpipes as they marched into battle. Even so, as Private Bill Millin of the 1st Special Service Brigade Commandos waded onto Sword Beach on D-Day, he proudly blew a tune on his pipes. His brave – or as the Germans thought, mad – performance was immortalized in the 1962 war flick The Longest Day.

A Canadian soldier with bayonet fixed takes charge of a group of Axis prisoners, including a couple of officers. The detainees had been captured on D-Day in the seaside town of Courseulles-sur-Mer, which lay in the Juno Beach sector. Their captors were men of the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division, who had faced stiff German opposition as they came ashore.

These four soldiers of the 5th Ranger Battalion are aboard the landing craft that will take them to Omaha Beach in Normandy. At the moment of the photograph, they’re still safely in the English harbor city of Weymouth on the south coast. But it seems some of the men are happier about the impending assault than others. Talk about mixed emotions!

British commandos from the 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division waste no time in getting ashore from their landing craft. They have arrived on Gold Beach, the most central of the five amphibious assault areas targeted by the Allies. And while the troops met strong initial resistance from the German defenders, by the end of the day they had established a strong base from which to continue their attacks.

Is it possible to feel intense stress from a photograph? This would be the ideal shot to test the theory. After all, these paratroopers are aboard a Douglas C-47 transport bound for Normandy on D-Day. There, these incredibly brave men will launch themselves from the relative safety of their aircraft into the unknown dangers that await them.

This photograph well illustrates the sheer scale of the D-Day invasion of Normandy. Ships and landing craft crowd the sea as far as the eye can see. Barrage balloons fill the sky. The beach is packed with men, vehicles and supplies. The hectic scene captured here is of Omaha Beach not long after the initial D-Day assault.

When the Allies stepped ashore on D-Day, fighting the Axis troops was their first priority. But there was another extremely pressing issue: supplies. To meet that need, it was essential to capture the major Normandy port of Cherbourg. The Germans defended it fanatically, though, against attacks from the U.S. Army that started on June 18. Then, after eight days of hard fighting, the Americans prevailed. As you can see, some of the city’s residents were more than happy to welcome the victorious G.I.s.

These four paratroop commanders of the British 6th Airborne Division synchronize watches in preparation for Operation Tonga. It’s 11:00 p.m. on June 5, and planes are about to take off from RAF Harwell to drop troops into Normandy. These soldiers would be landing in enemy territory before the amphibious invasion started, making them some of the first Allied attackers to set foot in German-held France.

Understandably keen to get onto dry land, heavily laden Canadian troops of the 48th Royal Marines disembark with all speed from their landing crafts. It’s D-Day, and they’ve arrived at Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer, one of the seaside towns in the Juno Beach sector. You can hardly blame the men for their haste to get onto the beach and find cover. Heavy German fire caused casualty rates of up to 50 percent among the first wave of troops.

Well, it would seem that waiting to go to war in France was as good a time as any to study a guidebook about the country. At least that’s what these soldiers from Scotland’s 51st Highland Division have decided. And it seems to be an entertaining read, too. It’s June 7 here, and these men will shortly be landing on Gold Beach as part of the second wave of attackers.

These G.I.s are speeding through the sea towards the Normandy town of Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, which was in the Omaha Beach sector of the D-Day assaults. Soon they will be wading ashore to meet a wall of hostile fire. Tragically, casualties will be extremely heavy. But the attacking troops will finally overwhelm the German defenders on the morning of June 7. 

The Normandy city of Caen was an important strategic goal for the Allies – a transport hub with important roads and inland waterways. Understandably, then, the Germans were determined to defend the city. And that resulted in six weeks of bitter fighting before British and Canadian soldiers captured it on July 19, 1944. Intensive bombing had by that point largely destroyed the town. Here, a British soldier shepherds an elderly lady through the ruins. 

As Allied troops streamed across the Normandy beaches on D-Day, it was the climax of years of meticulous planning. The main political players in the story were President Franklin Roosevelt and British leader Winston Churchill. Both men knew that victory over the Axis forces could only be achieved by a massive invasion of German-occupied Europe. And that had to start with France.

It’s August 21, 1944, and these German troops no longer have the stomach for World War II. The location is Saint-Lambert-sur-Dive, about 35 miles inland from the Normandy coast. The captives have surrendered to 175 Canadian soldiers, who seized the French town in the face of ferocious defense.

The well-known aphorism “an army marches on its stomach” has variously been attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte and Frederick the Great. Whoever said it first knew what they were talking about. And here we see some G.I.s at chow time aboard a landing craft heading for the Normandy beaches. The prospect of armed combat does not appear to have spoiled their appetites.

These soldiers of the North Shore Regiment, part of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, are fighting their way through the ruins of Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer. The strongly defended town lay in the Juno Beach sector of the D-Day operations. Fighting was fierce and the regiment suffered heavily – with casualties of 124, including 34 killed.

The reason that things look so calm here is that the date of this image is May 28, 1944, a little over one week before D-Day. So these grinning troops are not in Normandy but on an exercise somewhere in England. That also explains why everything looks so neat and tidy. The chaos and bloodshed of Operation Overlord are still to come. 

These G.I.s of the 8th Infantry Regiment are taking cover on Utah Beach where they have landed on D-Day. Some of their buddies are pressing on up the slope. These men were relatively lucky, as Utah Beach was not as strongly defended as other landing points. Casualties were light in comparison to those on some of the other Normandy beaches.

It’s difficult to say who cracked the joke here, but whether it was the Military Police guy or the elderly Frenchwoman, it must have been a good one. They’re in the village of Sainte-Mère-Eglise, which gained a certain notoriety on D-Day. That was because a company of American paratroopers dropped in the village square at about 1:45 a.m. on June 6. They were supposed to have landed elsewhere, but it seems the villagers were glad to welcome them anyway!

These American troops fall into the category of walking wounded, which makes them lucky in a strange way. Many of their buddies suffered far worse injuries and, of course, death during the D-Day assaults in France. These men have come back across the English Channel from Normandy and are disembarking at the port of Southampton.

These soldiers of the 18th Infantry Regiment are approaching the Easy Red sector of Omaha Beach. Shortly, the door of their landing craft will drop onto the sand, and these guys will be thrown right into the heat of the action. Omaha Beach was the scene of some of the stiffest fighting on D-Day, you see. The steep cliffs that overlooked the sand made it an ideal defensive position and a tough nut to crack. 

It’s plain to see that these clean-looking G.I.s are not in combat in France. It’s actually June 22, 1944, and these men are still in Britain, presumably waiting for their turn to sail across the English Channel to mainland Europe. The woman, identified only as Mrs. M. Hale, makes a good fist of entertaining the Americans with her accordion. Apparently, her husband was already fighting over in Normandy. 

British soldiers come ashore at Gold Beach on D-Day. These are men of the 47 Royal Marine Commando, an elite unit formed in 1943. They landed near the seaside town of Asnelles, and they had a far from easy time of it. The Germans sank five of their landing craft as they approached the shore, you see, and the Marines suffered 76 casualties out of a force of 420. 

Clearly, these British soldiers aren’t in France yet – just look at their beautifully polished boots! These smart-looking troops are actually fitting in a bit of shopping in an English village before D-Day. Apparently, they were looking for cigarettes. It’s May 28, 1944, so there are still a few peaceful days ahead before the violence of the Normandy invasion is set to erupt.

Soldiers contemplate the remains of a German bunker and gun emplacement – part of the defense system for Gold Beach, Normandy. The fortification was destroyed by British infantrymen from the Green Howards Regiment with the help of three tanks. And that feat didn’t go unnoticed. Sergeant Major Stan Hollis of the Green Howards won a Victoria Cross – Britain’s highest military honor – for his bravery during the Gold Beach assault. It was the only V.C. awarded on D-Day.