Veterans reflect on storming the beaches in largest amphibious assault in history
On 6 June 1944 Allied forces carried out the largest seaborne invasion in history.
Under the codename Operation Neptune, the Normandy Landings paved the way for the liberation of France, ultimately securing victory for the Allies in the Second World War.
Forces News spoke to a number of veterans, some now no longer with us, who described what it was like to serve on that day.
Nigel Cresswell, who was at Sword Beach, told Forces News in 2019 how ships bombarded German coastal positions before the troops were landed on the shore.
Another D-Day veteran, Ken Cooker, explained how troops were all told to assemble before they "scrambled down the nets… into the landing craft".
But as the landing craft approached the beach, some of the men were dropped in deeper water by mistake.
"There's a strong current in the channel and, over the time, the sand builds up under the waves like humps and some landing craft come into these humps and stopped and they thought they [were] on the beach," he said.
"They dropped their ramp and some of the lads were [in] 10ft, 20ft of water with all their gear on.
"No chance. They drowned."
Ken Sturdy, who was also at Sword Beach, told Forces News in 2014 that while the weather was still rough "most ships managed to close in fairly close [to] the beach".
"There were mines there," he said. "We did lose some shipping from the minefield."
Speaking in 2019, Bob Gale described how the "whole place seemed to be covered in smoke and an awful lot of noise going off".
"The German shells going over the top and the British shells going over the top a little bit higher and there was aeroplanes going over as well," he said.
Another D-Day veteran explained how the men were told not to stop to treat the wounded during the initial assault.
"If somebody falls, you don't stop to help, your job is to get ashore and do what you're trained to do," he said.
"It's one of the tough parts of an assault."
Arthur Davies landed at Gold Beach and spoke to Forces News in 2015.
"When you're wading your way through water and you see spurts coming up in the water, which was machine gun bullets… then I thought to myself how lucky I am," he said.
D-Day veteran Fred Harvey, who landed at Juno Beach, told Forces News in 2016 what stuck in his mind was how the Canadian troops, who were the assault troops, were lying dead or wounded on the beach as they went up.
"It killed me," he said. "I'd been playing cards with some of these blokes."
Mr Coker told Forces News "it really sunk in on the second day" when hearing of friends who had died in the assault.
"We'd been dug in during the night and the following day we're talking to people and you say 'Where's Charlie? Where's Billy… Oh, didn't you hear, they got killed yesterday'," he said.
"That's how you found out these things."
Mr Sturdy told Forces News there is a side to "an assault of the kind that D-Day was that one doesn't really want to dwell on".
"It is rather a sickening thing to think of," he added.
In total, 4,414 Allied troops died on D-Day, including 1,449 British soldiers.
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