“Who’s Who” - in the V-Mails from 1942-1948
                                    (sent out by the Saucon Valley Defenders)

The majority of Hellertown and Lower Saucon service men and women featured in the Saucon Valley Defenders V-Mail are listed below.  Not all names have been captured here but it is worth looking through to see if you recognize anyone.

Businesses, organizations, teams, and local town names are listed in the second half of Who’s Who.

If you want to find a reference to someone listed, just access the V-Mail searchable file provided in the V-Mail Blog.

 

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👉 For the full stories, download the searchable Adobe PDF from the blog. 👈

                  (ignore the informational caution that "pops up" - and click DOWNLOAD)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a3y1RYzkrJtzy6o3yOFo80ayYs1lvrv_/view?usp=sharing 👈

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Saucon Valley Defenders Reports 

October 1942, 43, 44, 45

What a difference a War Makes.  Take a look at what was happening in our hometown during four years of war as depicted in the excerpts from October V-Mails below.

Parades, Halloween at Home, Beautiful Fall Weather, High School Soccer, Alumni Serving, War Drives, and Elections!

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👉 For the full stories, download the searchable Adobe PDF from the blog. 👈

                  (ignore the informational caution that "pops up" - and click DOWNLOAD)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a3y1RYzkrJtzy6o3yOFo80ayYs1lvrv_/view?usp=sharing 👈

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1942-October – Hellertown

In the golden October sunlight, yellow leaves drift down in the blue air, and the hills are smoky with haze. Wild asters grow deep along the country roads, and the woods are filled with bayberry and bittersweet. The wild mixture of beautiful colors against old stone walls nearly makes one accept autumn. The schools opened on September 8th, with 377 students enrolled in high school and 496 in elementary grades. 

Soccer at the local high school ramps up during the week of October 5th. The first game against the Lehigh Frosh will be played in Bethlehem. Due to transportation difficulties, only six major games are scheduled. The team personnel include Lash, possibly as goalie; Mowrey and Goldberg as potential fullbacks; Werkheiser, Marcez, Johnson, Flok, and Fonner as possible halfbacks. The most challenging aspect will be the forward line, as there are few linesmen with enough experience and drive to make the team function cohesively. The potential linemen are Robert Yob, Mease, Schneider, Pundiak, Richards, Keller, Hirkach, and Pasternak. At a meeting of the Lehigh-Northampton League, it was agreed that basketball will be played during the upcoming season. The league will include the following teams: Copley, South Whitehall, Wilson, Nazareth, Fountain Hill, East Stroudsburg, and Hellertown.

October 1943 - Halloween

Well, I guess you know by now that the 3rd War Loan Drive went over the top. The response in your hometown, especially in the schools, was good. It seems that the people—most of them—want to do their part. Outside of a few chiselers and careless individuals, we recognize our duty, whether it's buying bonds, saving scrap, or donating to deserving causes. We want you to know we are behind you.The latest check-up shows that 162 alumni of H.H.S. are currently serving. H.H.S. will have both boys' and girls' basketball teams this year. Recent actions by the Board of Education allow these teams to participate in an inter-scholastic schedule. It is now known that the boys will again compete in the Lehigh-Northampton League.

October 1943 - Halloween

Township Division

The folks from District No. 3, which includes Polk Valley, Wassergass, and Lower / Saucon, kept 'on the ball' during the past month and plan to dedicate their plaque, probably on October 10th. The plaque for the area will be placed at the crossroads in Ironville, better known as Wassergass, and will list the names of 55 men in the Army and 7 in the Navy. Somehow, the lads and lassies from this area are not inclined to join the specialized branches of the Armed Forces. Two additional names, Kenneth Bergstresser and Thomas Vuksta, Jr., have been received beyond those already mentioned in our letters.

All of the folks on the "home front" are supporting this work, and in District No. 3, Jacob Raab, Chairman, is assisted by Mrs. Clarence Reiss, Mrs. Floyd Brader, Jr., and Mrs. Mae I. Quier. We take great pleasure in dedicating this issue to those 62 "Fighters for Freedom" from District No. 3, and sincerely pray that our small efforts may help them in some way to accomplish the big job that all of you are determined to see end in VICTORY.

October 1944 – Halloween

Township Division

We are always receiving great letters from you folks on the 11Fighting Front, and like the 1GALS1, some are quite tricky. P.F.C. Charles Wimmer really made the headlines: 'BINGEN AND LEITHSVILLE HOLD REUNION IN NEW GUINEA." It seems that 1Chuck, who is a G.I. cook, had some visitors recently in New Guinea. His visitors included none other than his brother Allen, Maynard Klotz, Earle Sutton, and Warren Miller from Leiths-ville and “Eddie”Hock from Bingen. What a small world!

October 1945 - Halloween

Hellertown Division

Nature in all its beautiful colors of yellow, red, and brown has bedecked the hills and fields surrounding our little town. Though the tapestry of leaves is breathlessly beautiful, we close our eyes to what must come. Falling leaves and the falling year—beauty is going the way she came. Saying goodbye with no sigh, no tear (it is the empty wind you hear). It is also election time. The election for town officials as well as certain county offices is just a week away. The office of chief burgess probably offers the most interesting contest. The Republican party has nominated Howard Hess, a local businessman, while the choice of the Democratic party is Morris J. Dimmick, the veteran burgess. Almost daily, as you go downtown, you meet someone in or just out of uniform who a short time ago was either on foreign soil or in camp. Many are home on extended furloughs with the hope their discharge will follow soon and lead to a happy return to civilian life. Halloween again was a big event for the kids, and they showed more enthusiasm than at any time in many past years. The American Legion Band, with a good number of musicians, furnished the main part of the music. Prizes were awarded, and as usual, the treat at the firehouse followed the parade. The prizes and refreshments were gifts from local civic organizations and civic-minded citizens.

A look back at September 1942 and what the Saucon Valley Defenders Committee wrote in the Sept. 4^th V-Mail to keep our local troops in service worldwide updated on Saucon Valley’s Homefront activities. (See the complete V-Mail below.)

Here is the big picture of what the war-torn world looked like in September 1942.

• Japan was at its high point militarily, controlling much of Asia and the Pacific.
• The Allies were on the defensive almost everywhere, except for small morale-boosting actions like the Doolittle Raid.
• The real turning points were still ahead (Coral Sea, Midway, El Alamein, Stalingrad), but April 1942 was the moment when both sides were preparing for those decisive battles.

Highlights of the Saucon Valley Defenders Committee V-Mail, Sept 4, 1942

• Corn is plentiful, and Clam Bakes and Corn Roasts come into their own.
• A Donkey Ball Game was sponsored by the Junior Women and Business Men of Hellertown, with a crowd of 1,200 people. 
• Borough Civil Defense Program equipped Wolf School, American Legion, and the Fire House as First Aid Stations.
• Miss Alianore Long, School Nurse, is now a nurse in the U.S. Army.
• Chas Fulmer, James Hulak, and Homer Derr enlisted in the Marines.
• Nicholas Kolinetts has been reported missing by the Navy Department.
• Sad news came to the family of Chas. Kemmerer was notified that their son, Henry, was missing.
• The following boys have passed their physical examinations and were immediately inducted into the Service: Wilson Werst, Norbert Bergstresser, Harvey Laubach, Thomas Washko, Marvin Benner, Geo. Sabo, Gilbert Kiefer, Martin Kershner, Leon Transue, Chas Wimmer, Paul Mindler, and Joseph Kardos.

Please see the V-Mail dated September 4, 1942 (below). 
There is much more detail and local news in this edition. 

Imagine, as you read this, what it would be like to be a service member halfway around the world (in the Pacific or Europe) receiving this Saucon Valley News. 

Thank you, Saucon Valley Defenders! 

Ken Bloss (and Dan Ruth)

9/11/25

 

While reading the 80 V-Mails released monthly by the Saucon Valley Defenders during the war years 1942-1945, we noticed many references to Hellertown High School, Saucon Valley Alumni Association, High School Sports Highlights, and Community Events that were communicated to our local GIs serving in the armed forces. 

Reading more carefully reveals information about many educators who either joined the war effort by leaving early or finishing high school and signing up, or existing teachers who left their positions to enlist. The Greatest Generation of Hellertown and Lower Saucon, about 800 in number, included many who were fortunate to return and become teachers in our local schools. 

Here are some of the Saucon Valley’s Greatest Generation who you may remember as educators in the Hellertown Lower Saucon School District.  There may be more educators’ names mentioned that we did not pick out from the 80 digitized V-Mails, so if you find others, please let us know. 

Don’t forget to go to our Blog:  www.Saucon-Valley-vmails.blogspot.com.  Click on the image in the left sidebar to download a searchable Adobe PDF.  Open the Adobe PDF and look for the magnifier in the upper right corner, then search for any name or word in the 80 downloaded V-Mails.  The program will pull V-Mail with your search criteria.

 

Below are excerpts from SV’s Greatest Generation

1942

October 5, 1942 - Mr. Stanley Weikel, also a member of the high school faculty, and Mrs. Weikel became the proud parents of a baby girl.

 

1943

April 1943 - Charles Raudenbush, manager of the American Store, has been elected President of the Hellertown Business Association. He succeeds M. E. Illick.

July 1943 - During the past few weeks, we have received word from quite a number of you who are serving in so many different places.    Pfc. Albert Hoppes, a weather observer in the Army Air Corps, was located at Jackson, Miss.

September 1943 - Raymond Gozzard, S.l/c says, "I can't wait to see some action on the sea."

October 1943 - The American Legion Band was led by Tech Sgt. Robert L. Hoppes, of Camp Stewart, Ga., who was home on furlough. Other servicemen and women in attendance added a touch of the military to the enthusiastic crowd, which in turn made the carnival successful

December 1943 - Albert Hoppes, _with the Army Air Corps in India, says he likes the land of mystery.

December 1943 - Raymond Gozzard Sl/c hopes to see someone he knows in the "Middle East".

 

1944

January, 1944 - The following men have been accepted for service since our last letter to you: ARMY - James Petrovich, William Apple, Michael Glosan, Steven Hari, Jr., William Toth, William Zimpfer, Bryan Arnold, Charles Raudenbush; NAVY - Leon Brown, Michael Tapajcik, Steve Machkow, Wm. A. Hartnett, Paul Kovach, Granville Strauss, Leo Mataitis, Calvert Unangst, Jr., Kenneth Rice, Ernest Kovacs, Machael Hildebrandt; MARINES - William Szabo; MERCHANT MARINE - Charles Bergey; MARITIME SERVICE - Leon Fulton

April 18, 1944 - Pfc. Albert W. Hoppes is receiving the monthly news in China.

June 1944 - Raymond Gozzard, Sl/c “somewhere at sea" is now striking for Quartermaster 3-c. He says, “I am fine and can’t complain.”

August 17, 1944 - When school opens, Mr. Frank Myers will replace Mr. Stricker in the Shop, and Miss Caroline Bealer will take the place of Mrs. Beatrice Stackhouse as our Latin teacher.

August 17, 1944 - Cpl. Albert W. Hoppes, in China, · writes that it is great to be sitting in this far-off corner of the world and read how the other Hellertown fellows are doing.

October 1944 - High School soccer got off to a start against Liberty H. S. The score was 5-0, not in our favor. No alibis, according to Coach Robert Hoppes.

October 1944 - Raymond E. Gozzard, Q.M. 3/c, tells of receiving our newsletter and birthday greeting in a foreign port.

December 1944 - Leon A.Brown, M3/c sends regards to everyone from the U.S.S. Baham. Michael, J. Tapajcik, M.M/3c, is also serving on the Baham.

 

1945

April 1945 - An organization called the Hellertown War Memorial Fund, Inc., is in the process of being formed. At a meeting at the H. S. last week, the following officers were elected to serve the group: Pres. M. E. Illick; Vice Pres. George Solomon; Recording Sec., Lucille Bean; Financial Secy., Rodney Baugh; and Treas., Thomas A. Peffer.

July 1945 - Stanley J. Weikel, a member of the High School Faculty, has been called to service in the armed forces by his draft district.

September 1945 - Stanley Weikel, a member of the U. S. Navy, and Paul Weaver with the U. S. Army, called at the high school during the past month.

We are seeking more stories about our Greatest Generation Educators for our Back-to-School article. If you have any, please reply to this blog so everyone can share.

Especially if you know which courses these teachers taught, please let us know by replying to the blog. Also, pass along the blog address to anyone who might be interested!

Enjoy the History!

Ken Bloss & Dan Ruth

Saucon Valley’s 4^th of July during WWII

as documented in the V-Mail History
presented by the Saucon Valley Defenders Committee 1942-1945

Celebrating the 4^th of July in Saucon Valley and around the world was not the same 83 years ago as it is today in 2025.   

Thanks to the V-Mails published back then, we can glimpse into the lives and events of our Saucon Valley’s Greatest Generation at home in Hellertown and Lower Saucon, as well as abroad during the war years 1942-1945.  

Eighty-three years later, we thank the over 800 enlisted men and women from Saucon Valley for enabling the current generation to celebrate our 4^th of July.

Here are some of the activities taking place during July 1942 through 1945 in our community and around the world, as revealed in the V-Mail files. Use the search feature and look for “July” to review the V-Mails. (This presumes that you have downloaded the .pdf file containing all of 80 V-Mails; if not, these instructions can be found within the very first post on this blog.)

July 1942.  Council Commends Fire Company.  The Dewey Fire Company concluded its three-day Independence celebration with a splendid display of fireworks.  Many people thought it was the best array ever put on.

July 1942. Air Post Inspection. An officer of the Interceptor Command inspected the air observation post on July 3rd. The post is now located at the intersection of Constitution Avenue and Juniper Road near the recently developed Mountain View section.

July 9, 1942.  This was the opening day for the gas rationing under the second plan, effective July 22^nd.

July 1943. We left the July 4^th fireworks up to you this year, and the way we figure it, the Japs, Heinies, and Mussolinis know what American fireworks are like. For the most part, your neighbor and mine stayed at home on Independence Day - because of the restrictions on pleasure driving.

July 1943.  The Saucon Valley Defenders are sending eighteen (18) to the different services the last week in July.

July 17, 1944. The Alumni Association of H.H.S. did itself credit when it purchased ten one-hundred-dollar bonds, or in other words, a thousand dollars worth.

July 9, 1945. Captain Edward B. Deibert, M.C., informs us that his promotion was received on July 9^th and that he is in charge of the only dispensary along a 90-mile stretch of the Lido Road in Burma.

So, there is a glimpse of the July 4^ths during the War Years in Saucon Valley. Life was not the same as it is today, and it surely shaped our futures as the Greatest Generation of Saucon Valley managed their lives through World War II.

Remembering D-Day

Unfortunately, personal activities kept Ken and I from posting June's installment to the V-Mail blog.

 

We felt bad because we missed an opportunity to acknowledge D-Day (June 6th). IF ANYONE HAS ANY PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE OF FAMILY (or friend) involvement with D-Day, we'd like to hear from you!

 

There are four specific references to D-Day within the master file of all V-Mails; one of them is posted here below. I believe two of my high school classmate's fathers are mentioned in this V-Mail.

Other than that, here are 82 interesting facts about D-Day that you might find interesting. #62 & #63 stand out to me!

 

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1. The “D” is derived from the word “Day”, with “D-Day” meaning the day on which a military operation begins. The term D-Day has been used for many different operations, but it is now generally only used to refer to the Allied landings in Normandy on 6 June 1944.

2. The invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe was code-named “Operation Overlord”.

3. In October 1941, Winston Churchill told Captain Lord Louis Mountbatten to start thinking about an invasion of Europe: “Unless we can go on land and fight Hitler and beat his forces on land, we shall never win this war.”

4. Britain’s Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Morgan was appointed the chief of staff to the Supreme Allied Commander (COSSAC) and in April 1943 was told to prepare for a “full scale assault against the continent”.

5. On 7 December 1943, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with US General Dwight D. Eisenhower in Tunis and told him he would be commanding the invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe.

6. Dwight D. Eisenhower was put in charge of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) and started work on coordinating and carrying out the Normandy landings.

7. All information pertaining to the invasion was marked “Bigot”, a classification even more secret than “Top Secret”.

8. D-Day was originally planned for 5 June but had to be delayed by 24 hours due to poor weather.

9. Eisenhower smoked up to four packets of Camel cigarettes a day in the months running up to D-Day.

10. In contrast, Montgomery was completely sober. He did not smoke or drink.

11. During the preparation and execution of D-Day, around 17 million maps were drawn up.

12. Royal Engineers were dispatched in midget submarines to conduct covert assessments of the beaches including collecting sand samples.

13. The Commander in Chief of the German army in the west was Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, who had 850,000 men at his disposal.

14. The D-Day operation aimed at breaching the Atlantic Wall, a series of coastal defenses built by Nazi Germany between 1942 and 1944 that ran from Norway to the Franco-Spanish border.

15. With an Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe seeming ever more likely, in early 1944 Nazi Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was tasked with strengthening the Wall.

16. Over 1.2 million tonnes of steel and 17 million cubic meters of concrete were used in building the Wall’s defenses, and this included 92 manned radar sites.

17. By the time of the Allied invasion on 6 June, more than 5 million mines had been laid in northern France.

18. More than 260,000 workers helped to build the Atlantic Wall, and only 10% of these were German.

19. Hitler wanted 15,000 concrete strong points to be manned by 300,000 troops. Ultimately though, this would prove impossible to achieve.

20. Almost 1 million US soldiers arrived in the UK between 1942 and 1944 in preparation for D-Day.

21. The basic pay for a British infantryman was 3 pounds and 15 shillings a month. Unskilled laborers could earn 6 pounds per month.

22. US soldiers earned in the region of £12 per month. As a result, they were very popular with young British women, and 70,000 British women married American servicemen during the war.

23. Approximately 9,000 children were born out of wedlock to American GI fathers.

24. By D-Day, the Americans had shipped over 7 million tonnes of supplies to the UK.

25. To be sure his men wouldn’t let out secrets ahead of D-Day, Terence Otway sent 30 pretty members of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, dressed in civilian clothes, into pubs near where his soldiers were training. They were tasked to do all they could to discover the men’s mission. None of the men gave anything away.

26. The deception plan to keep the Germans guessing as to when and where the invasion would take place was called “Operation Bodyguard”.

27. A fake army made up of inflatable tanks and trucks was created in Kent to fool the Germans into thinking the invasion would take place in the Pas-de-Calais.

28. The Allied deception campaign was so successful that even after D-Day, Hitler still believed the Normandy landings were a diversion to cover an attack in the Pas-de-Calais.

29. There were around 350,000 Resistance members helping the Allies to prepare for D-Day from inside France, but only 100,000 of these had working weapons.

30. Britain’s Major General Percy Hobart devised several specialist vehicles for the invasion, including armored bulldozers and swimming tanks, with around 30,000 practice launches for the swimming tanks undertaken.

31. Choppy waters meant many of the Duplex Drive (DD) “swimming tanks” failed to make it to shore. This was particularly true at Omaha beach.

32. In an effort to aid recognition, all Allied aircraft were required to wear invasion stripes, except for readily identifiable heavy bombers and seaplanes.

33. On the eve of D-Day, the Allies had 15,766 aircraft available, and by June 1944, Luftwaffe aircraft were outnumbered by more than 30:1 in the western theatre of the war.

34. Between January and June 1944, British factories produced 7 million jerry cans in preparation for D-Day.

35. During practice landings on Slapton Sands in Devon, 946 Allied soldiers were killed in an attack by German E-boats.

36. The Allied invasion force sailed to a rendezvous area in the middle of the Channel nicknamed “Piccadilly Circus”. From there they would sail to the invasion zones.

37. Around 7,000 vessels of all shapes and sizes were used by the Allies on D-Day, including 139 major warships, 221 smaller combat vessels, more than 1,000 minesweepers and auxiliary vessels, 805 merchant ships, 59 blockships and 300 miscellaneous small craft.

38. Over 4,000 landing craft used to transport the invasion force onto the beaches of Normandy.

39. The oldest Allied battleship in action on D-Day was the USS Arkansas. She was commissioned in 1912.

40. One of the first shots fired from a ship on D-Day was fired by HMS Belfast, a vessel now permanently docked on the River Thames in London.

41. [73,000 US troops and 83,000 British and Canadian troops](https://www.historyhit.com/d-day-how-many-men-were.../) crossed the channel on D-Day.

42. All American service personnel had been required to take out a $10,000 life insurance policy beforehand.

43. The crossing took around 17 hours.

44. The Landing Ship Tank (LST) could carry 20 tanks, 400 battle ready troops or 2,100 tonnes of supplies.

45. Modified Landing Craft Tanks (LCTs) were able to fire rockets. These LCTs fired over 14,000 rockets on D-Day.

46. The weather forecast was so bad that Erwin Rommel, the German commander in Normandy, felt so sure there wouldn’t be an invasion he went home to give his wife a pair of shoes for her 50th birthday. He was actually in Germany when the news came of the invasion.

47. Shortly after midnight on 6 June, around 24,000 US, British and Canadian airborne troops began landing in France.

48. Just one in six Allied paratroopers landed in the correct place.

49. John Steele, a US paratrooper dropping in to Sainte-Mere Eglise on the night of 5 June, was left hanging from the church when his parachute became stuck. He was taken prisoner by the Germans but later escaped. Today, an effigy of John Steele hangs from his parachute on the church in Sainte-Mere Eglise.

50. The Germans had a number of remote control “Goliath” tanks that carried 224 pounds of explosives.

51. Allied aircraft dropped 7.2 million pounds of bombs on D-Day.

52. The Allies didn’t lose a single plane to the Luftwaffe, although anti-aircraft fire did shoot down 113 planes.

53. The first five assault divisions were delivered to their beaches under cover of a naval bombardment from 6:30am.

54. The Allies landed on five beaches in Normandy. These had been codenamed “Utah”, “Omaha”, “Gold”, “Juno” and “Sword”.

55. Lt. Den Brotheridge was the first Allied casualty of D-Day. He was mortally wounded during the glider assault on the Orne bridges.

56. The first building in France to be liberated during Operation Overlord was a cafe next to Pegasus Bridge.

57. As part of the D-Day operation, [2,240 SAS troops were dropped across the French coastline](https://www.historyhit.com/d-day-in-numbers-the-key.../). They were tasked with diverting attention from the real invasion areas.

58. The men who took part in the first assault wave on Utah beach had just a 50/50 chance of survival.

59. The Germans had 110 artillery pieces overlooking Utah beach, with another 18 large batteries situated inland.

60. The landing on Utah beach was ultimately successful with just 300 casualties of the 20,000 men put ashore.

61. On Utah, US troops were off the beach by midday.

62. On Omaha beach, the US 116th Infantry Regiment’s A Company lost 96% of its effective strength in one hour.

63. Of the 34,000 men who landed on Omaha on D-Day, 2,400 were killed.

64. When US Army Rangers climbed to the top of Pointe du Hoc – the plan being to knock out heavy duty artillery that was one of the main reasons for the assault on that particular beach – they found that German guns were not there.

65. The British landed 24,970 troops on Gold beach with 400 casualties.

66. On Juno beach, the Canadians suffered 1,200 casualties but also managed to advance up to six miles inland within a few hours.

67. On Sword beach, meanwhile, 28,845 men were set ashore with just 630 casualties.

68. The only Victoria Cross awarded for D-Day went to Company Sergeant-Major Stanley Hollis of the Green Howards.

69. Just 21% of Allied forces wounded on D-Day were operated on within one hour.

70. Two temporary harbors called “Mulberries” were built to unload supplies.

71. Sections of mulberry harbor can still be seen today at Arromanches.

72. The steel beach obstacles known as hedgehogs were later broken up and fixed to the front of tanks to help them grapple sections of hedgerow.

73. Within 100 days of D-Day, 2.5 million men, 500,000 vehicles and 4 million tonnes of equipment and rations had been unloaded in France.

74. In order to continue supplying fuel to the invasion armies, the so-called “PipeLine Under The Ocean” (PLUTO) was laid. This delivered Allied fuel directly from England to France. US tanks were consuming an average 8,000 gallons of fuel per week at that time.

75. Only Hitler could order the German Panzers to counter-attack the Allied invasion on D-Day. But he slept until midday on 6 June.

76. By the end of the day, the Allies had established a foothold along the Normandy coast and could begin their advance into France.

77. By midnight on 6 June, 132,000 Allied forces had landed in France, while more than 2 million were eventually shipped there in total, comprising a total of 39 divisions.

78. Allied casualties on 6 June have been estimated at 10,000 killed, wounded, and missing in action: 6,603 Americans, 2,700 British, and 946 Canadians.

79. Total German casualties on D-Day are not known, but are estimated as being between 4,000 and 9,000.

80. Although the Allied forces who took part in the D-Day operation were primarily from Britain, the US and Canada, they also had Australian, Belgian, Czech, Dutch, French, Greek, New Zealand, Norwegian, Rhodesian and Polish naval, air and ground support.

81. D-Day was the largest amphibious invasion in history.

82. D-Day was only the first chapter of the Normandy Campaign that would see Allied forces push through France to liberate Paris.