What happened on D-Day and why is it so important?
National leaders, royalty, and veterans will come together to remember the battle that became the turning point towards an Allied victory in the Second World War.
The 80th anniversary of D-Day is taking place on Thursday, with commemorative events in Britain and France.
Over the course of two days, the King, Queen, Prince of Wales, prime minister Rishi Sunak, dignitaries, and those who fought on the beaches in 1944 will come together to remember the battle that became the turning point towards an Allied victory in the Second World War. Veterans will attend two days of remembrance events in Portsmouth to mark the historic milestone, while general election campaigning has been temporarily paused.
The 80th anniversary of the landings will be especially significant as it is likely to be the last major anniversary that a large number of veterans will still be alive to commemorate it. It also comes at a time when a major land war on European soil – the ongoing conflict in Ukraine – takes place for the first time since 1945.
Wednesday’s events saw an emotional King Charles and Queen Camilla lead commemorations for the bravery of the D-Day soldiers on Southsea Common in Portsmouth where D-Day veterans, armed forces personnel and local schoolchildren were among the guests.
That was followed by a flypast from the Royal Air Force Red Arrows ahead of tributes on the beaches of Normandy (where hundreds of allied defence personnel will parachute into a historic D-Day drop zone to commemorate the airborne invasion) and a joint UK-France thanksgiving service at Bayeux Cathedral.
On Thursday – the 80th anniversary of D-Day itself – commemorations will begin in Normandy at 7.25am, the same time the beach invasion began in 1944. The official British commemoration will take place at the British Normandy Memorial at Ver-sur-Mer, where King Charles will join French president Emmanuel Macron and Sunak.
Why were the D-Day landings so significant?
The Normandy D-Day landings were the largest seaborne invasion in history. Their importance cannot be underplayed – the 1944 battle essentially laid the foundation for an Allied victory in the Second World War.
Troops from the UK, the USA, Canada, and France attacked German forces on the beaches at Normandy in northern France on 6 June, 1944. Allied troops departed from Portsmouth on 5 June.
Dubbed ‘Operation Overlord’ by the Allied commanders, the landings proved to be a crucial victory in the 10-week battle for Normandy. The march into the French interior began an advance against the German army, which suffered major setbacks at a time when it was under intense pressure from the Soviets in the east.
The force which took part included 5,300 ships and craft, 150,000 men, 1,500 tanks and 12,000 planes.
British and Commonwealth troops landed at the three beaches of Gold, Juno and Sword. American soldiers were given the task of getting ashore at the Utah and Omaha beaches. Omaha saw some of the bloodiest fighting, with US troops cut down by intense German machine gun fire.
Inland, Allied airborne troops had been parachuted in before the dawn beach landings began. Their mission was to prevent German counter-attacks on the coast and ensure the break out from the beachhead could be completed.
By 12 June 1944, more than 320,000 men were ashore with almost 55,000 vehicles and nearly 105,000 tons of stores.
German troops were overwhelmed and their army was defeated, with around 400,000 killed, wounded or captured during the campaign. The success of the D-Day operation allowed British troops to capture the city of Caen – a strategically important junction for Allied forces.
Ultimately, D-Day led to the liberation of France – denying Germany the use of any more of the country’s resources for their campaign. The capture of much of Germany’s infrastructure and weapons network convinced many of Germany’s war leaders that they faced total defeat.
Yahoo News has collated some of the recollections from D-Day veterans.
Eric Suchland: ‘I’ve seen some rather harrowing things’
“There was lot of noise, gunfire, lots of German aircraft strafing us all the time. But I wasn’t frightened, it just didn’t register, to be honest, we didn’t know what we were getting into and just had to get on with our jobs.
“We saw planes being shot out of the sky with parachutists coming down on a moonlit night as clear as a bell. I can see that now.”
“I’ve seen some rather harrowing things that weren’t very enjoyable to see. We had a makeshift operating theatre to treat the wounded and evacuate the dead.”
Read the full interview with Eric Suchland, who was 20 years old when he was sent to Normandy as part of a three-man signals unit to support a field ambulance brigade, on PA Media here
Don Sheppard: 'A whole lot of people were killed'
“We’d trained for the landing in Scotland, and the Royal Navy had assured us: ‘Don’t worry lads, we’ll get you right onto the beach.’ Unfortunately, they didn’t,” recalled the beloved great-grandfather.
“We had to get through 20 to 30 yards of water. The landing craft was a car with an officer and a driver aboard. They didn’t know there was a shell hole directly underneath, and they just disappeared under the water.
“There were shells and a whole lot of people killed. Bodies were everywhere. The noise is something I won’t forget – the roar of a battleship discharging its guns over our heads and the sound of rocketships.”
Read the full interview with Don Sheppard, who was a 24-year-old sapper at the time of the landings, on the Echo here
John Roberts: ‘This is what we’ve been fighting for’
“The minesweepers only go at six or seven knots, very slow, so we were going very slowly with them,” Roberts recalled.
“And then we got to about eight miles from the coast at about 6:00 am. And it was just beginning to get light then and in the distance I could see France.
“I thought, 'This is what we've been fighting for. It was Poland to begin with and then France. And there it is'.”
Read the full interview with John Roberts, who was a 20-year-old British Royal Navy officer during the D-Day landings, on Reuters here
Cecil Newton: ‘I was exceptionally lucky to survive’
“It was an absolute massacre,” he says. “There were so many tanks hit and so many people killed. Two infantry battalions were mowed down.
"A person standing in one of the doorways had witnessed it all and took me to hospital.
“I was exceptionally lucky to survive."
Read more about the experiences of Cecil Newton, who was a 17-year-old member of G company of the Royal Ulster Rifles during the D-Day landings, on the Daily Echo here
George Horner: ‘You just rained it down on them’
“We went in by sea, it was rough too getting on the shore, there was plenty of landing craft, some of them were sinking around us due to shells from shore coming down on us.
“I had a bazooka, used it to hit tanks or blow-up buildings. It takes two to carry the bazooka. I would carry a few shells, the other boy would have carried the bazooka.
“I carried the radio too. We were always told to aim for the tracks, when they were hit, unless they put up a white flag to surrender, you just rained it down on them.”
Read the full interview with George Horner, who was a 17-year-old member of G company of the Royal Ulster Rifles during the D-Day landings, on PA Media here
Harry Read: ‘We knew we might get killed’
“As soon as we landed, I was scared – anyone who says they weren’t is a liar.
“It was noisy and the officers were shouting for us to get on the beach, but they must’ve dropped us in a shell hole because we sank into several feet of water.
“I was proud to be there because we were helping people, and yes, we knew we might get killed, but we were helping people.”
Read the full interview with Harry Read, who was 18 when he was part of the second wave of soldiers to land in Normandy on D-Day, on the Liverpool Echo here
Donald Howkins: ‘You never thought about yourself’
“You were doing what you were supposed to do – that took all your time.
“You never thought about yourself – you were thinking about what you had to do to get off that beach and it wasn’t scary at all.
“I didn’t feel frightened, it was more like a big adventure.”
Read the full interview with Donald Howkins, who was 23 when he was a gunner in the 90th Middlesex Regiment, on PA Media here
Ted Lombarski: ‘The first wave went through hell’
“We were the first wave to hit the beach, Companies E and F of the 16th Infantry.
“Almost all the tanks that had gone in before us were sunk. The tank crews had a rough time, and so did the navy personnel who drove us in.
“As we went in, we knew that the air force had dropped their bombs too far inland and that the navy shelling had done likewise. The first wave went through hell that day.”
Read more from those who took part in the D-Day landings on The Conversation here
Peter Belcher: ‘I couldn’t tell you how many casualties we had’
“I was scared. It goes very quiet. You hear the drone of the plane all the way, you see, and then suddenly it goes quiet. You can hear a pin drop…
“Some of the shells come over amongst us. We had casualties but nowhere near as great…
“I couldn't tell you how many casualties we had. We had the first one, but as a battalion on D-Day I don't think we had a lot, nowhere near expected.”
Read the full interview with Peter Belcher, who was a 20-year-old paratrooper with the Airborne Regiment, 4th Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, on Manchester Evening News here
Gilbert Clarke: ‘Give them hell’
“You couldn’t have seen the blue sky.
"Was all planes. Hundreds and thousands of them – all shapes and sizes. All different type of plane. The instructor (said) ‘Hmm. Well, boys, it’s started.’
“We all shouted, ‘Give them hell,’ or probably something a lot stronger than that.”
Read the full interview with Gilbert Clarke, who was an 18-year-old Royal Air Force volunteer from Jamaica, on the Associated Press here
John Dennett: ‘You had to see it to believe it’
“There was that many ships, you thought, well what’s going to happen? You had to see it to believe it.
“I saw a picture of it again yesterday and it’s unbelievable. We thought nothing can happen to us, there’s too many of us.”
“And sure enough, to me, D-Day wasn’t as bad as some of my other escapades. But it was only possibly because I was never really shot at on that day.”
Read the full interview with John Dennett, a Royal Navy veteran who was 19 at the time of the D-Day landings, on PA Media here
