The 6th day of June

On this day, in 1944, the liberation of Europe commenced in earnest.
It was later called "D-Day"
The day on which the first of 160,000 troops landed on the beaches of France, right into a murderous cross fire of German defenders. The Allied Forces had about 12,000 casualties, including 4,400 confirmed dead.
The German troops lost approximately 1,000 of their soldiers.
I could belabour you with unending statistics, but all of this information you may find in numerous entries in 'Wikepedia'.

Let me just discuss, briefly the oft debated question:
Was Germany 'liberated' or was the country 'defeated' ?
There is no question that the rest of Europe was indeed 'liberated' from Germany's brutal occupation.
Many of my contemporaries are steadfast in their opinion that Germany was not liberated but defeated.
I think I may have the answer: The 'National Socialist' regime and its army were defeated.
The People of Germany and Austria were 'liberated' !
Liberated from the cruelest dictatorship modern history has known. Liberated from the Nazi slogan:
"Our struggle is for Peace, Freedom and Bread". (Frieden, Freiheit und Brot), when, in fact the people of Germany (and that included Austria) rarely had less of those, in fact, they had No Peace, No Freedom and very little Bread.
In May of 1955 the then Austrian Foreign Minister, Leopold Figl, from the balcony of Belvedere Castle,  in Vienna, waved the "Staatsvertrag" and announced to one and all: "Österreich ist frei."
When, I believe, he should have said: "Österreich war befreit am 8. Mai 1945, (Austria was liberated on the 8th May 1945)  and this document is the final affirmation of its Liberty".

Bertstravels.