69 years ago today, the course of World War II changed...
...when the Allies, spearheaded by American forces, invaded Nazi-controlled "Fortress Europe" at several locations on the coastline of the French provence of Normandy.
Published in Charlton's D-Day #2 (1964) on the 20th Anniversary of the invasion!
D-Day was an annual title from 1963-68.
All the tales in the first issue were about the June 6th invasion of Normandy.
All successive issues had at least one D-Day-themed tale.
But later issues also featured other World War II battles as well as Korean War, Vietnam War, even American Civil War stories!
Since he was too young to enlist in the military during World War II, Wally Wood joined the Merchant Marine.
Turning 18 in 1945, he enlisted in the Army, became a paratrooper, and served in post-war Japan.
After his hitch, he briefly attended the brand-new Hogarth School of Art (now-known as the School of Visual Arts) and made the rounds of comic book publishers, where he met fellow artist John Severin (who illustrated our earlier D-Day Special).
And the rest is comics history...
