In July 1944, LIFE magazine photographer Ralph Morse was on hand for what he called, in his typed notes from the scene, the ''first organized entertainment for troops in Normandy'' following D-Day.
Photos of men and women performing for hundreds of battle-weary troops, chronicle a memorable reprieve during the fighting in 1944 Normandy. 


Entertaining the troops

U.S. Army troops move through the German town of Blankenhain, in the eastern state of Thüringia, wiping out any last remaining pockets of resistance. A dead German soldier lies on the sidewalk between two American soldiers, killed in action defending the town; April 1945.  


Clearing the town of the enemy

U.S. Army on victory parade on Cherbourg's Place de la République, watched by townspeople from the side; 26 June 1944.