D-Day: Those who Were There

The logistics of landing almost 250,000 men on a 60-mile stretch of heavily fortified coastline are almost unimaginable. By Whitsun 1944, Britain had began to resemble a vast military warehouse, with jeeps and trucks parked along what seemed like every road in the south and west of England, tanks ranked in carparks and forecourts, and rows upon rows of bombs stored under tarpaulin in fields - all labelled "Europe". The roads were jammed with soldiers in transit, all trains were requisitioned for the troops, and women knew that their menfolk 'somewhere in southern England' might be one of that perilous first wave across the Channel.