D-Day 70th Anniversary events

This Friday (June 6) marks the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings, the event that is widely credited as kick-starting the demise of Nazi Germany. On Friday a re-enactment group will bring back to life the tide-turning moment that more than 155,000 allied troops landed on the beaches in Normandy, in history’s largest amphibious invasion.  

The D-Day landings, codenamed Operation Neptune, took place on June 6, 1944, when allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy in France.

Around 4,400 Allied troops died on D-Day, while another 9,000 were wounded or declared missing.

The re-enactment, part of a series of anniversary events, is to honour the historic day when troops waded and parachuted onto French soil as part of the famous Second World War D-Day landings.

After the audacious attack, which marks the start of the eventual defeat of the Nazi Germany regime, America’s General Dwight Eisenhower declared that the ‘tide had turned’.

Eisenhower said: ‘The free men of the world are marching together to victory!’ 

Earlier today (Tuesday) members of the re-enactment group arrived at Arromanches-les-bains ahead of the coming event. Members of the group are from the UK, Spain, Spain, France and the US.

To mark the anniversary on Friday an international flotilla of ships will sail through the channel to Normandy before an international ceremony on one of the landing spots, Sword Beach.

Services led by the British and the French will be held at Bayeux Cathedral, followed by an event at the Bayeux Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery. There will also be a service organised by the Normandy Veterans Association at Arromanches.

In the UK, Portsmouth will be the main focus for the anniversary, as thousands of allied troops left its port to head to Normandy.