They were there on D-Day, on the beaches and in the skies. This is what they saw

https://www.npr.org/2024/06/06/ [login to see] /d-day-normandy-invasion-memories-veterans
More than 6,000 ships and landing craft crossed the English Channel in the mission. Before dawn, Allied gliders and paratroopers dropped behind enemy lines. There were more than 11,000 planes, including bombers that sought to weaken the so-called Atlantic Wall of German defenses.

Jim McLaughlin had a front-row seat: the top turret of a B-26 bomber.