Soviet Armed Forces

Russian women who live in Greece, dressed wearing Soviet military uniforms, pose for a selfie as they take part in a commemorative event for Russian Victory Day, marking the end of World War II, in central Athens, Thursday. [Petros Giannakouris/AP]

Seventy years ago, 156,000 Allied soldiers began their battle for a beachhead on the coast of Normandy, setting off a sequence of events which, along with the advance of Soviet forces in the east, would result in the defeat of German forces which occupied Europe from France to Greece. June 6, 1944, is one of the most important days in the history of our blood-soaked continent.