These haunting photo overlays capture the horrors of D-Day
Almost 5,000 landing and assault craft, accompanied by 289 escort vessels and 277 minesweepers, from Canada, the US, Britain, and Australia took part in the operation. The Allies suffered a total of 226,386 casualties, but it proved a decisive moment in the war.
Suddenly, the Nazis were fighting a two-front war in Europe, leading to a division in their forces across multiple flanks. But the cost of D-Day, in both human lives and devastation of the surrounding regions of France, was immense.
The following photos from Getty photographer Peter Macdiarmid show an amazing juxtaposition of images from the affected areas of modern France with photos of the invasion from 73 years ago overlaid on top.
Jeremy Bender composed an earlier version of this article.