thanks for joining us this hour. really happy to have you here. we have an interesting show tonight, and i m particularly glad you are here for it. we will go a ways back when allied soldiers came ashore on the coast of france on the beaches of normandy for the d- day invasion. they opened up a new western front against the nazis in europe , a shock to the germans. the operation, the d-day invasion relied on the element of surprise. and the germans really were shocked. they had been occupying france for four years at that point. they installed a collaborationist regime that they assembled from pro-fascist and pro-nazi organizations. there was a french resistance to the nazi rule and collaborationist s, but the nazis and their puppets you know, were definitely in charge. they were heading into year five of being in charge. they were really settled in, in france. and then, here comes this shock arrival, this invasion, ultimately millions of allied troops, landing on the beaches