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U.S. Census Bureau History: 80th Anniversary of Operation Overlord (D-Day)

"Into the Jaws of Death," by U.S. Coast Guard Chief Photographer's Mate Robert F. Sargent, is one of the most iconic images
of the D-Day invasion. Shot from one of the USS Samuel Chase's Coast Guard-piloted landing craft, the image shows soldiers
from the U.S. Army's 1st Division, 16th Infantry, Company E wading toward Omaha Beach on the morning of June 6, 1944.

Photo Courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard.

On the morning of June 6, 1944, soldiers from the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and other Allied nations landed on a 50-mile stretch of fortified beaches in Normandy, France, as part of Operation Overlord. After facing withering fire to defeat the Nazi defenders and establish beachheads, approximately 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel and landed in France by day's end. The success of the D-Day invasion established a foothold in France that allowed soldiers and supplies to begin the task of freeing Western Europe from Nazi Germany's control.

The Allied nations—including Great Britain, Canada, Australia, the United States, Norway, and the French Liberation Army—began planning an airborne and sea invasion of Nazi-occupied France in 1943, with U.S. Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower as commander of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force. The target of the invasion was the coastline of Normandy, France, approximately 20–25 miles across the English Channel from England. Planners chose five beaches on the French coast, codenamed: Gold, Sword, Utah, Juno, and Omaha. Each was defended by underwater obstacles, mines, and the Nazi's "Atlantic Wall" of heavily fortified artillery, mortar, and machine gun emplacements. As soldiers approached the landing beaches, airborne troops would strike inland, destroying artillery installations, disrupting communications, and slowing the arrival of German reinforcements attempting to drive the Allied invaders back into the sea.

The assault on Nazi-occupied Europe began late on June 5 and during the early morning hours of June 6, as more than 2,200 Allied bombers peppered beaches and inland targets with high explosives. At the same time, thousands of American and British paratroopers and glider airborne soldiers landed in northern France to disrupt Nazi defenses and communications and ultimately captured Cherbourg, France—a vital link in the invasion's supply line. Scattered parachute drops, lost troop-transporting gliders, and missing equipment did not deter the airborne troops from wreaking havoc as waves of Allied soldiers approached Normandy's coastline. The airborne's success was not without cost. Between D-Day and the capture of Cherbourg on June 30, American airborne casualties totaled approximately 1,000 dead, 2,600 wounded, and 4,500 missing.

As the airborne assault kept the Nazis busy inland, an invasion fleet of more than 1,200 warships off the Normandy coast pounded German positions. American, British, Canadian, Free French, and other Allied soldiers and equipment boarded thousands of landing craft in the English Channel for a stomach-churning trip to the French coast. The first waves of invaders to arrive at the landing beaches at sunrise on June 6 experienced varying levels of resistance. British and Canadian forces quickly silenced Nazi defenses and captured Gold, Juno, and Sword beaches with fewer than 2,800 killed or wounded. On Utah Beach, American troops suffered just 197 casualties to overcome the reluctant defense mounted by non-German draftees. However, American soldiers at Omaha Beach and Point du Hoc faced much fiercer resistance. Approximately 200 U.S. Army Rangers scaled the 100-foot cliffs at Point du Hoc—a rocky peninsula between the Utah and Omaha landing beaches—to destroy coastal gun batteries at the cost of 135 dead and wounded. Americans landing at Omaha Beach, were easy targets for determined Nazi defenders as they waded ashore dodging machine gun and mortar fire. Despite more than 2,400 casualties at "Bloody Omaha," the heroic actions of soldiers from the U.S. Army's 1st and 29th Divisions captured the beach, stormed inland, and began consolidating the Normandy beachheads for the soldiers and supplies pouring into France in the hours and days that followed.

Eighty years later, millions worldwide still pause each June 6 to remember the heroism of the men and women who fought and died so that others could be free. Among the dozens of military cemeteries in Europe, nearly 14,000 American graves and the names of more than 2,000 missing at the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer and the Brittany American Cemetery in Montjoie Saint Martin, France, are reminders of the sacrifice so many made during Operation Overlord and the battles that followed in the 10 months prior to the defeat of Nazi Germany.

You can learn more about the D-Day invasion and the soldiers who fought and died to liberate Europe using Census Bureau data and records. For example:

• The September 27, 1940, signing of the Tripartite Pact formally allied the "Axis Powers" of Germany, Italy, and Japan. In that year, the 1940 Census reported that 1,237,772 people of German decent lived in the United States. The nation's population also included 126,947 Japanese 47,305 of whom were foreign-born) and 1,623,580 Italians. In total, the United States' foreign-born population was 11,419,138, with the largest number living in New York (2,853,530), Pennsylvania (973,260), and Illinois (969,373).
• Between 1939 (when Germany invaded Poland) and 1960, Germany's population fell from approximately 79.7 million to 72.8 million. Germany's estimated population today is about 84.1 million.
• French censuses reported that France's population fell 3.4 percent from 41,524,000 to 40,125,230 between 1931 and 1946. France's population has grown continuously since 1950, and today is an estimated 68.4 million.
• Economists Robert Nathan, Stacy May, and Simon Kuznets delivered The Feasibility Study to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on December 4, 1941. The study's demographic and economic data detailed what the United States needed to defeat the Axis powers and how quickly American manufacturing could convert to war production. It proved so comprehensive that the Allies used the study to develop The Victory Plan that guided their war strategy. The study was so accurate that it predicted the Allies would be ready to invade France in late spring 1944.
• Nearly 160,000 Allied soldiers stormed the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944. Twelve of these soldiers earned the Medal of Honor—the United States most prestigious military decoration awarded for acts of valor, including:
  • Private Carlton W. Barrett, who waded into the surf repeatedly to rescue drowning soldiers while under heavy enemy fire. He survived the war and lived in Napa, CA, until his death in 1986.
  • Technician John J. Pinder of McKees Rocks, PA, who refused medical treatment so he could continue retrieving vital communications equipment from the surf. He died on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944—his 32nd birthday.
  • Junction City, KS, native Sergeant Walter D. Ehlers landed on Omaha Beach in the D-Day invasion's second wave on the morning of June 6. (His brother Roland died on Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion.) While leading his unit 8 miles inland on June 9, Ehlers knocked out mortar and machine gun positions and drew enemy fire so his men could escape from their exposed position. Ignoring his own wounds, he carried his injured comrades to safety under German fire. He survived the war and retired to Long Beach, CA. He was the last surviving Medal of Honor recipient from Normandy when he died in 2014.
  • Three days after D-Day, Private Charles N. Deglopper of Grand Island, NY, sacrificed himself to heavy German fire so his comrades could withdraw to more easily defended positions.
  • First Lieutenant Jimmie W. Monteith, Jr., of Alleghany County, VA, rallied men trapped on the Normandy beaches and later led tanks through a minefield on foot before being killed by German fire. His grave at the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Meris, France, is among those soldiers killed during Operation Overlord.
• Between 1941 and 1945, thousands of American manufacturers mobilized their workforces and retooled assembly lines to support the war effort. Oldsmobile employees in Lansing, MI, built Howitzers and millions of artillery shells; B-24 bombers at Ford Motor Company's Willow Run complex near Ypsilanti, MI; watch workers in Waltham, MA, made rugged wristwatches that survived severe conditions on the land, in the sea, and in the air; and brass manufacturers in and around Waterbury, CT, produced cartridge cases, mortar shells, bullets, and bomb components. Today, thousands of Americans work in industries supplying the U.S. Armed Forces. For example, in 2021, the Census Bureau's County Business Patterns series found that 70 Military Armored Vehicle, Tank, and Tank Component Manufacturing (NAICS 336992) establishments employed 12,363 employees; 174 Small Arms Ammunition Manufacturing (NAICS 332992) establishments employed 13,560; and 473 Small Arms, Ordinance, and Ordinance Accessories Manufacturing (NAICS 332994) establishments employed 22,757 people during the pay period that included March 12, 2021.
• In 2022, the Census Bureau's population estimates program found that the majority of Americans claimed ancestral ties to at least one of World War II's combatant nations, including more than 41.1 million Germans; 30.7 million Irish; 31.4 million English; 16 million Italians; 6.3 million French (except Basque); 5.27 million Chinese; 2.1 million Russian; and 717,413 Japanese.
• The 16.1 million Americans who lived through the Great Depression and served in the Armed Forces during World War II are often referred to as the "Greatest Generation." Members of this "Greatest Generation" born between the early 1900s and 1920s include U.S. presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush; movie stars Jimmy Stewart, Charlton Heston, and Henry Fonda; civil rights activist Medgar Evers; baseball hall-of-famer Yogi Berra; and Olympian Louis Zamperini. In 2022, the Census Bureau estimated that just 297,592 World War II veterans were still living in the United States.
• Less than 5 years after the end of World War II, American soldiers were again at war in Korea. On June 25, 1950, 75,000 North Korean People's Army soldiers crossed the 38th parallel separating North and South Korea. The invasion caught South Korea and its allies by surprise and by June 27, the South Korean government had evacuated the capital of Seoul. Approximately 5,720,000 American men and women served in the U.S. Armed Forces between 1950 and 1953. Some of the heroes of the Korean War included Generals Douglas MacArthur, Matthew B. Ridgway, Mark W. Clark (who signed the Korean Armistice Agreement on July 27, 1953); the most decorated U.S. Marine in American history Lewis Burwell "Chesty" Puller; the U.S. Navy's first African American aviator Jesse L. Brown (killed in action during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, December 4, 1950); and the U.S. Air Force's top fighter pilot Joseph C. McConnell. In 2022, the Census Bureau estimated that nearly 1 million veterans of the Korean War era lived in the United States.
• In 2022, the Census Bureau estimated that more than 17 million Americans age 18 years and older were military veterans. The largest cohort of surviving veterans in 2022—5.9 million—served during the Vietnam War era; 4 million served during the Gulf War period from August 2001 and later; and 3.9 million served during the Gulf War period from August 1990 to August 2001.
• Numerous events, parades, and services will commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day Invasion on June 6, 2024. Event hosts include the American Battle Monuments Commission, National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, VA; the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, LA; and many ceremonies held in Europe, including those sponsored by Normandie Tourisme in Normandy, France.

The Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France, is located on the site of the temporary American St. Laurent Cemetery established by the U.S. First Army
on June 8, 1944. The 172.5 acres cemetery is the final resting place of nearly 9,400 Americans who lost their lives during the D-Day landings and later European operations.

The cemetery's "Wall of the Missing" is inscribed with 1,557 names of Americans who lost their lives in the war, but whose remains could not be recovered.

Photo Courtesy of the American Battle Monuments Commission.

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Citing Our Internet Information

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Individual census records from 1790 to 1940 are maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration, not the U.S. Census Bureau.

Publications related to the census data collected from 1790 to 2010 are available at https://www.census.gov/prod/www/decennial.html.

Visit the National Archives Web site to access 1940 Census records—https://1940census.archives.gov.

Decennial census records are confidential for 72 years to protect respondents' privacy.

Records from the 1950 to 2010 censuses can only be obtained by the person named in the record or their heir after submitting form BC-600 or BC-600sp (Spanish).

Online subscription services are available to access the 1790–1940 census records. Many public libraries provide access to these services free of charge to their patrons.

Contact your local library to inquire if it has subscribed to one of these services.

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