70th Anniversary of D-Day - June 6 1944 - Friday June 6,2014

 

World leaders join veterans on beaches of Northern France where 70 years ago today 150,000 Allied troops mounted the biggest amphibious invasion on D-Day

 

THE 'LONGEST DAY': HOW THE NORMANDY LANDINGS UNFOLDED IN THE 24 HOURS THAT CHANGED HISTORY

Surge: A huge fleet of ships carrying thousands of troops and armoured vehicles land on France's northern coast during Operation Overlord

Launch: A view from the back of a boat carrying American troops

June 5 1944
2200 - Operation Neptune, a seaborne force of five Allied assault groups consisting of 130,000 men, leaves the English coast in 6,939 vessels, travelling through channels already cleared by minesweepers.
June 6 1944 - D-Day
0005 - German coastal batteries between Le Havre and Cherbourg are bombed by the Allies.
0020 - British airborne troops secure Pegasus and other bridges over the River Orne.
0230-0300 - Combined bombardment and assault fleets arrive and anchor.
0430 - St Mere Eglise is captured by US airborne troops and roads leading up to Utah Beach are closed.
0500 - Britain's 9th Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, helps destroy weapons at the Merville Battery thus protecting troops who will land at Sword Beach.
0530 - Allied warships begin bombarding the Normandy coastline. Landing ships and landing craft head for shore.
0600 - Bombers pound the German shore defences. More than 5,300 tonnes of bombs are dropped.
0630 - American troops begin landing on Omaha Beach and face a devastating enemy onslaught which pins them there until 1100.
0630 - Americans begin landing on Utah Beach.
0710 - US 2nd Army Ranger Battalion attacks the Pointe du Hoc and defends it for the rest of the day.
0725 - British land at Gold and Sword Beaches.
0735 - Canadians land at Juno Beach.
0900 - General Eisenhower authorises release of communique announcing the invasion has begun and General Bradley calls for reinforcements.
0945 - Enemy forces cleared from Utah Beach.
1200 - Winston Churchill speaks to the House of Commons about the landings.
1330 - Troops on Omaha Beach begin securing the area.
1430 - The 21st Panzer Division unleashes a counter attack towards the coast.
1600 - The British arrive at the coastal town of Arromanches.
1800 - Some of the 3rd Canadian Division, North Nova Scotia Highlanders reach three miles inland. 1st Hussar tanks cross the Caen-Bayeux railway, nine miles inland.
1900 - Command post set up on Omaha Beach.
2000 - Allied patrols at the outskirts of Bayeux.
June 7, 1944
0000 - All the beaches are secure. By the end of day the Allies had disembarked more than 135,000 men and had bridgeheads of varying depths along the Normandy coastline. 
But on Omaha the situation was perilous as the Germans fought for every inch of territory.
By sunset a total of 10,000 men had been killed, injured or were missing.

Veterans who stormed the beaches of Normandy exactly 70 years ago today saluted towards the English Channel at dawn to mark the moment they and their friends started the D-Day assault. 

Beaches that in 1944 were being pulverised by shells and gunfire and strewn with the brave wounded and dying were silent this morning as men who fought and survived remembered those who lost their lives in Nazi-occupied France.

A day of international commemorations of history's biggest amphibious invasion was started at just after midnight with a vigil at the Pegasus Bridge, marking the first assault of the D-Day invasion when Allied soldiers landed in the dead of night exactly 70 years ago.

Up to 19 heads of state, including the Queen and US president Barack Obama, will be on Sword Beach near Ouistreham, one of the five battle zones on Normandy's coastline on June 6, 1944.

Colored smoke fills the sky as WWII veterans stand to attention flanked by children during an international D-Day commemoration ceremony on the beach of Ouistreham, Normandy, on Friday June 6,2014

Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski, U.S. President Barack Obama, Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, President of Slovakia Ivan Gasparovic, King Harald V of Norway , Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg and President of Greece Karolos Papoulias attend the International Ceremony at Sword Beach to commemorate the D-Day invasion 

France said 'thank you' to the United States for its help in World War II by showering a million rose petals on the Statue of Liberty on the 70th anniversary of D-Day.
Three helicopters showered the petals on the statue in New York Harbor.
A French military frigate, the Lafayette, was moored near the statue, which was a gift from France