LIFE: Rare color photos mark D-Day anniversary

Here, on June 6th, the 68th anniversary of D-Day, in rare color photos taken before and after the invasion, LIFE.com features LIFE magazine photographer Frank Scherschel's photographs. Scherschel captured countless, lesser-known scenes from the run-up to the onslaught and the heady weeks after: American troops training in small English towns; the French countryside, implausibly lush after the spectral landscape of the beachheads; the reception GIs enjoyed en route to the capital; the jubilant liberation of Paris itself.