Troops were fighting for democracy at home as well as abroad.
Shortly after midnight on 6 June 1944, Operation Neptune, otherwise known as D-Day, began.
Thousands upon thousands of planes and ships bombed and shelled Nazi defences in Normandy. The Allies then sent in 23,000 men in three airborne divisions and mounted, with 4,000 landing craft, what remains the world’s largest ever amphibious assault: five divisions, attacking five separate beaches.
