▲General Dwight D. Eisenhower gives the order "Full victory-nothing else" to paratroopers in England just before they board their airplanes to participate in the first assault of the invasion.

▲German prisoners of war march along Juno Beach to a ship taking them to England, after they were captured by Canadian troops at Bernieres Sur Mer, France.

▲American troops on board a landing craft the night before D-Day.

▲An American paratrooper and a French woman enjoy a joke together in the shell-torn streets of Sainte Mere Eglise.

▲US Army reinforcements march up a hill overlooking Omaha Beach after the D-Day landings.

▲US Army paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division drive a captured German Kubelwagen at the junction of Rue Holgate and RN13 in Carentan, France.

▲Canadian troops come ashore at a Juno Beach landing area on D-Day at Bernieres Sur Mer, France.

▲American soldiers land on the coast of France under heavy machine gun fire.

▲A monument to a fallen comrade left on a shell-blasted Normandy shore.

▲American assault troops of the 16th Infantry Regiment, injured while storming Omaha Beach, wait for evacuation.

▲A view of Omaha Beach shortly after the beach was secured.

▲US paratroopers walk to board their transport for the invasion of Normandy.

▲Barrage balloons at Omaha Beach during the Allied assault.

▲Bomber crews of the US Ninth Airforce leave their aircraft after returning from a mission to support the D-Day landings in Normandy by disrupting German lines of communication and supply.

▲US Army troops embark from the coast of England on their way to Normandy.

▲US troops board at Torquay Hards, England prior to landing on the Normandy coast.

▲A landing craft carrying American soldiers approaches the northern coast of France.

▲US troops land on Omaha Beach.

▲American soldiers arrive at Omaha Beach.

▲US soldiers in full battle-dress board a landing craft.

▲American soldiers rescue other Americans from a sinking landing craft that was hit by enemy fire.

▲American assault troops wade ashore on Omaha Beach.

▲Reportedly one of the first pictures of the D-Day landings in Normandy, showing US jeeps and men landing on the French coast.

▲

Members of the Allied Invasion Force keep watch from fox holes dug in the beachhead while fresh troops and equipment land.

▲

Codenamed Operation Neptune but more commonly known as D-Day, June 6, 1944 saw the Allied invasion of Normandy. The pivotal military intervention was the largest seaborne invasion in history and is remembered as the start of the liberation of northwestern Europe from Nazi occupation.

Click through the gallery to take a look back at pictures of this momentous day in history.

▲

A US flag lies as a marker on a destroyed bunker two days after the strategic site overlooking D-Day beaches was captured at Pointe du Hoc, France.

▲

Survivors of a landing craft sunk by enemy fire are helped ashore on Utah Beach.

▲

American troops help injured soldiers from a dinghy after the landing ship was hit by enemy fire.