In this segment Les talks with historian Rick Britton about THIS WEEK IN VIRGINIA & US HISTORY: The big history news this week, of course, is the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. Taking place on June 6th, 1944, it one of World War II’s most pivotal combats. The D-Day invasion on Tuesday, 6 June 1944, was the largest seaborne invasion in history. It began the liberation of German-occupied France (and later western Europe) from Nazi control and laid the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western Front. Planning began in 1943. The weather on D-Day was far from ideal, and the operation had to be delayed 24 hours. Adolf Hitler had placed German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in command of German forces along the Atlantic Wall in anticipation of an Allied invasion. The amphibious landings were preceded by extensive aerial and naval bombardment and an airborne assault—the airdrop of 24,000 US, British, and Canadian airborne troops shortly after midnight. Allied forces began landing on the coast of France at 06:30. The target, a 50-mile stretch of the Normandy coast, was divided into five sectors: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. The men landed under heavy fire from gun emplacements and machine-gun nests overlooking the beaches, and the shore was mined and covered with obstacles such as wooden stakes, metal tripods, and barbed wire. Casualties were heaviest at Omaha. Only two of the beaches (Juno and Gold) were linked on the first day; all five beachheads were not connected until 12 June. The operation eventually gained a foothold that the Allies gradually expanded. German casualties on D-Day have been estimated at 4,000 to 9,000 men. Allied casualties were at least 10,000, with 4,414 confirmed dead. The local connection: Tech. Sgt. Frank D. Peregoy—of the 3rd Battalion, 116th Infantry, 29th Division–posthumously received the United States military’s highest decoration for bravery in combat, the Medal of Honor, for his actions on June 8th, 1944, D-Day plus two. Peregory grew up in a large family in Virginia and although he was only 15 years old, in 1931 he lied about his age in order to join the Virginia Army National Guard. Peregory—during the battle for Grandcamp, France, 2 days after the invasion—single-handedly attacked a fortified German machine-gun emplacement, killing 8 German infantrymen with his rifle and taking more than 30 prisoners. Peregoy was killed in combat six days later.