Untold Stories of D-Day - Photo Gallery - National Geographic Magazine

Current Issue September 2009
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Untold Stories of D-Day

A grand hoax, top secret maps, and live-ammunition rehearsals set the stage for June 6, 1944, when 200,000 soldiers stormed Normandy's beaches to help free Europe.

/2002/06/D-Day/img/5-normandy-beach-714.jpg /2002/06/D-Day/img/d-day-60-05.jpg Photograph by Alexandra Boulat /2002/06/D-Day/img/6-omaha-beach-714.jpg /2002/06/D-Day/img/d-day-60-06.jpg Photograph courtesy National Archives /2002/06/D-Day/img/7-omaha-beach-714.jpg /2002/06/D-Day/img/d-day-60-07.jpg Photograph courtesy National Archives /2002/06/D-Day/img/8-utah-beach-475.jpg /2002/06/D-Day/img/d-day-60-08.jpg Photograph courtesy National Archives /2002/06/D-Day/img/9-boat-smoke-714.jpg /2002/06/D-Day/img/d-day-60-09.jpg Photograph courtesy National Archives Samuel Chase for another load of troops.]]> /2002/06/D-Day/img/10-transport-boat-714.jpg /2002/06/D-Day/img/d-day-60-10.jpg Photograph courtesy National Archives /2002/06/D-Day/img/11-wounded-soldiers-714.jpg /2002/06/D-Day/img/d-day-60-11.jpg Photograph courtesy National Archives /2002/06/D-Day/img/3-WWII-veterans-475.jpg /2002/06/D-Day/img/d-day-60-03.jpg Photograph by O. Louis Mazzatenta /2002/06/D-Day/img/1-normandy-mulberry-714.jpg /2002/06/D-Day/img/d-day-60-01.jpg Photograph by Alexandra Boulat /2002/06/D-Day/img/2-diver-wreck-714.jpg /2002/06/D-Day/img/d-day-60-02.jpg Photograph by Brian J. Skerry YMS- 304, sunk on July 30, more than a month after D-Day. Because small minesweepers of that class had wooden hulls, they were safe from magnetic mines—but not from acoustic mines such as the one that exploded as the YMS-304 came near. Stan Broilo was eating breakfast in the galley that day. "Something blew me up to the ceiling," he recalls. "I couldn't move. My back was broken. The next thing I knew, two guys were getting a life jacket on me. Then they dragged me and just walked off the ship. They didn't have to jump." Someone in a British rescue boat pulled Broilo out of the water. Another minesweeper and a French fishing boat also hauled crewmen out of the sea. Rescuers saved 36 of 42 men on the YMS-304. Broken in half, it sank in a little more than a minute.]]> /2002/06/D-Day/img/4-flowers-fence-714.jpg /2002/06/D-Day/img/d-day-60-04.jpg Photograph by Alexandra Boulat