Commissioners proclaim June 6 a day of recognition of 70th anniversary of D-Day

Highland County commissioners Shane Wilkin and Jeremy Shaffer proclaimed June 6, 2014 as a day of recognition in honor of the 70th anniversary of the June 6, 1944 D-Day invasion of World War II.

Commissioner Tom Horst was absent from Wednesday's meeting.

Attending the proclamation signing were Vicki Knauff and Pamela Nickell from the Highland County Historical Society, veterans Dwight Reynolds and Vernon Garrison, and representatives of the Highland County Veterans Service Commission, Brian Fox, Becky Williams and Stephanie Roland.

Commissioner Wilkin noted that the June 6, 1944 Normandy invasion, code named Operation Neptune, was the largest seaborne invasion in history. The operation, into German-occupied western Europe, contributed to an Allied victory in the Second World War.

According to the U.S. Army, on June 6, 1944, approximately 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily fortified French coastline to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. General Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which “We will accept nothing less than full victory.”

In addition, the airborne assault into Normandy as part of the D-Day invasion was the largest use of airborne troops up to that time. Paratroopers of the U.S. 82d and 101st Airborne divisions, the British 6th Airborne Division, the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, and other attached Allied units took part in the assault.

For more on the D-Day invasion, go to: http://www.army.mil/d-day/beaches.html.