Allies from the UK, the US, Canada and France attacked German forces on the coast of northern France on June 6, 1944 – known as D-Day.
It was the largest military seaborne operation ever attempted involving the landing of tens of thousands of troops on five separate beaches in Normandy.
D-Day marked the start of the lengthy campaign to liberate Nazi-occupied north-west Europe.
We salute them.
1. D-Day - heroes took part in the Normandy Landings:D-Day - local heroes who fought to liberate Europe
D-Day -Remembering our D-Day heroes Photo: UGC
2. D-Day - heroes took part in the Normandy Landings:D-Day - local heroes who fought to liberate Europe
D-Day -Remembering our D-Day heroes - John Sawford bosun of a landing craft on Juno Beach containing a lorry full of munitions and Canadian troopsPhil Sawford writes: "He had two concerns on his mind, firstly he would be in trouble if they had to jump in the water as he could not swim and secondly ‘what happens when we hit the beach and I pull the lever to drop the ramp?’.It was a terrible journey in a flat bottomed craft but in the early morning light they could see the French Coast and as they got closer the smoke, the noise, the smells, the sky full of aircraft, 14-inch shells from warships whistling over their heads and shells coming in their direction from the coast landing in the waters around them. In the middle of all of chaos of war at ‘Juno’ beach was an eighteen-year-old lad from Loddington. He never spoke much of it until his later years, but he did say that he was not in the ‘first wave’ and it ‘wasn’t too bad’ when they hit the beach. Each year a simple message on the grave of John William Sawford says ‘June 6th, 1944, we know where you were and something of what you, and thousands of others did, and your family is grateful’." Photo: UGC
3. D-Day - heroes took part in the Normandy Landings:D-Day - local heroes who fought to liberate Europe
D-Day :Remembering our D-Day heroesSusan Jane Cotton-Fink writes: "I never got to meet my Uncle Geoff Wilson - he died in Caen right after D-Day." Photo: UGC
4. D-Day - heroes took part in the Normandy Landings:D-Day - local heroes who fought to liberate Europe
D-Day -Remembering our D-Day heroesLisa Lucy Locket writes: "My Grandad. James Alexander Briggs. DUKW driver. Landed on Gold Beach. Survived." Photo: UGC