June 6, 1944By: Gerald Astor In ships and planes, they crossed the English Channel. On the other side Hitlers army waited. And the longest day was about to begin. In the spring of 1944, 120,000 Allied soldiers crossed the English Channel in the most ambitious invasion force ever assembled. Rangers, paratroopers, infantry, and armored personnel, these soldiers some who had just cut their teeth in Africa and Sicily and some who were brand new to war joined a force