via the winds this is cnn, the world s news welcome to the whole story. i m anderson cooper on june 6, 1944, american, canadian, british, and other allied forces launched the largest amphibious invasion in history. nearly 160,000 troops landed along five beaches in normandy, france. and what became known as d-day it was a turning point in the war in europe world war ii was fought against fascist regimes and germany and italy and imperial japan the victory of democratic principles was hard. one but 80 years have passed since d-day. and we thought it a good time to take a look at the state of our democracy today over the next hour, cnn s jake tapper looks back at d-day sacrifices. so many young men made on those beaches in normandy that day. and what it means to us now what were we fighting for? we were locked a battle with fascism. we re fighting for our freedom, for the freedom to think as we wish kopan with they gave their life to preserve and protect that constitution the
misunderstanding, no illusions about what they existed for. they were going to go in and defeater fernando at the risk of their lives and may of them paid with their lives neither is the true cost of war lost and retired general mark milley, who has served in among other theaters of war panama haiti bosnia, herzegovina, iraq, afghanistan, and somalia still, what our service members faced 80 years ago stands out. the level of intensity, fear, the noise, the blood the retired general is back on the beaches of normandy to observe the 80th anniversary of the allied landings in world war ii. probably five to 8,000 germans were spread out up in these bluffs up here with machine guns, cannons, mortars, the size, scale and scope of normally is unbelievable he can t replicate that nor do we want to yeah, with the world tilting toward anti-democracy