D-Day reminder of how Americans can pull together

Seventy-three years ago today, Americans were glued to their radios and reading “extra” editions of newspapers to hear the latest news about the D-Day invasion, the largest seaborne invasion in history.

Each of 156,000 allied troops knew what their mission was, to liberate Europe from one of the most evil forces imaginable.

Of that total, 61,715 were British soldiers, 73,000 were American and 21,400 Canadian.

Some 11,590 aircraft took part in the landings, delivering 23,400 airborne troops and conducting 14,674 sorties.

There were 6,939 vessels involved in Operation Neptune, the initial Normandy invasions that lasted from June 6 to June 30.

Some 4,413 Allied soldiers died on D-Day alone, according to recent research by the U.S. National D-Day Memorial Foundation, far higher than previous estimates of about 2,500 dead.

German losses are estimated to be somewhere between 4,000 and 9,000 dead, but no official tally exists.

Within five days, 326,547 troops and 104,428 tons of supplies had been landed on the beaches, code-named Juno, Gold, Omaha, Utah and Sword.

With divisions running deep in our country — pro- and anti-Trump, abortion, Second Amendment, race, Civil War monuments and Confederate flags — D-Day is a reminder of how our nation can put differences aside to pull together, given a worthy goal.