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On 12 June 1944, Britain’s wartime Prime Minister, Winston Spencer Leonard Churchill, crossed the English Channel to visit the Normandy beachhead on what he called his ‘jolly day’. Relishing danger, he had insisted on coming on D-Day itself. ‘Nothing,’ he said, is more exhilarating than being shot at without result.’

But King George VI would not allow him to travel on that day, so he came six days later. Many millions have followed his footsteps since, but none had so privileged a view as Churchill did that summer’s day. Here, in the words of those who witnessed the great man’s progress, and through photographs – many previously unpublished – we relive the events of that day.