June 6 marks the 82nd anniversary of the Battle of Normandy
June 6, 2026, marks 82 years since Allied troops arrived on the beaches of Normandy in France in what remains the largest seaborne invasion in history.
Approximately 4,414 Allied soldiers (2,501 American) died on D-Day in 1944 trying to liberate Western Europe from Nazi occupation.
As it turns out, farmers contributed in multiple ways to the overall success of D-Day and the Allies during the Second World War.
Thousands of farmers gave their lives on the front lines.
Historians estimate upwards of 20,000 of the 73,000 American troops who participated in the D-Day invasion came from an agricultural background.
Jake Larson, a self-described “farm boy from Hope, Minnesota” was among the soldiers who landed on Omaha Beach.
“While we were still on the command ship, all hell broke loose,” he said a U.S. Army video. “The biggest cannon that’s ever made were on these ships and they were shooting in trying to get through the barricades.”
He remembers walking on the beach.
And the dangers that surrounded him.
“Everybody’s walking in line with one another,” he said in the video. “You step in each other’s footsteps. So I’m walking behind them and we’re receiving small arms fire from the ground. I was more afraid of stepping on a landmine than the bullets whizzing by us.”
Larson passed away on July 17, 2025, at the age of 102.
Prior to his passing he gained an online following on TikTok. On his account @StoryTimeWithPapaJake, he shared his war stories.
Walter Ehlers, who was born on a farm in Junction City, Kan., in 1921, also landed on Omaha Beach.
His mission was to lead a 12-man reconnaissance team about five miles inland into the town of Trevieres.
“My squad wanted to dig in as soon as we hit the sand,” Ehlers told The Orange County Register in a June 2024 piece. “I told them we had to move forward or die where we were. There were wounded men everywhere and men stricken with fear trying to hide behind obstacles.”
His actions during the Second World War included eliminating multiple machine gun nests, and drawing enemy gunfire to himself so his platoon could escape.
His bravery earned him the Medal of Honor, the highest U.S. Armed Forces’ decoration, in December 1944.
Ehlers died in 2014 at the age of 92. His brother Roland died in battle on D-Day.
And while thousands of farmers fought in Europe, producers back home were tasked with keeping the soldiers fed.
About six months before D-Day on January 12, 1943, known as Farm Mobilization Day, President Franklin Roosevelt challenged farmers to produce more food.
“Food is no less a weapon than tanks, guns, and planes,” he said in a proclamation. “As the power of our enemies decreases, the importance of the food resources of the United Nations increases. With this thought in mind, we must further mobilize our resources for the production of food.”
He encouraged farmers to gather and “discuss ways and means of insuring for the year 1943 the maximum production of vital foods upon every farm in this country.”
And farmers answered the call.
In 1942, U.S. farmers produced 66.4 million bushels of rice. In 1943 that yield rose to more than 70 million bushels.
The potato crop of 1942 was 371.2 million bushels. One year later growers produced more than 464 million bushels.
Other crops like corn, wheat, and barley experienced drops in yield but remained high enough to support the war effort.
Farmers in different parts of the world helped in other ways.
In France, for example, farmers provided intelligence about German movement, supported paratroopers, and sabotaged enemy infrastructure like railways and telephone cables.
In Britain, more than 80,000 women through The Women’s Land Army worked on farms to maintain food production.