On June 6, 1944, allied soldiers descended on the beaches of Normandy for D-Day – an operation that turned the tide of the Second World War against the Nazis, marking the beginning of the end of the conflict.
Today, as many around the world prepare to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the landings, pictures of Normandy’s now-touristy beaches stand in stark contrast to images taken around the time of the invasion.
Reuters photographer Chris Helgren compiled a series of archive pictures taken during the 1944 invasion and then went back to the same places, to photograph them as they appear today. (Reuters)
A Cromwell tank leads a British Army column from the 4th County of London Yeomanry, 7th Armored Division, inland from Gold Beach after landing on D-Day in Ver-sur-Mer, France, on June 6, 1944. (REUTERS/US National Archives)
A couple walk inland from the former D-Day landing zone of Gold Beach where British forces came ashore in 1944, in Ver-sur-Mer, France August 23, 2013. (REUTERS/Chris Helgren)
U.S. Army paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division drive a captured German Kubelwagen on D-Day at the junction of Rue Holgate and RN13 in Carentan, France, June 6, 1944. (REUTERS/US National Archives)
Girls run across the street at the junction of Rue Holgate and RN13 in the Normandy town of Carentan, France, June 21, 2013. (REUTERS/Chris Helgren)
The body of a dead German soldier lies in the main square of Place Du Marche after the town was taken by U.S. troops who landed at nearby Omaha Beach in Trevieres, France, June 15, 1944. (REUTERS/US National Archives)
Tourists walk across the main square of Place Du Marche near the former D-Day landing zone of Omaha Beach, in Trevieres, France August 23, 2013. (REUTERS/Chris Helgren)
Canadian troops patrol along the destroyed Rue Saint-Pierre after German forces were dislodged from Caen in July 1944. British and Canadian troops battled reinforced German troops holding the area around Caen for about two months following the D-Day landings in Normandy. (REUTERS/US National Archives)
Shoppers walk along the rebuilt Rue Saint-Pierre, which was destroyed following the D-Day landings, in Caen August 23, 2013. British and Canadian troops battled reinforced German troops holding the area around Caen for about two months following the D-Day landings in Normandy in 1944. (REUTERS/Chris Helgren)
A crashed U.S. fighter plane is seen on the waterfront some time after Canadian forces came ashore on a Juno Beach D-Day landing zone in Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer, France, in June 1944. (REUTERS/US National Archives)
Tourists enjoy the sunshine on the former Juno Beach D-Day landing zone, where Canadian forces came ashore, in Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer, France, August 23, 2013. British and Canadian troops battled reinforced German troops holding the area around Caen for about two months following the D-Day landings in Normandy in 1944. (REUTERS/Chris Helgren)
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