D-Day, the Allied invasion of Europe, began on the night of 5-6 June 1944. At 07.00 hours on the 6th, Britain's First Corps and XXX Corps came ashore on Sword and Gold beaches, to withering fire from the entrenched German forces. Within the initial and critical couple of hours some 30,000 soldiers, 300 guns and 700 armoured vehicles were landed, a magnificent achievement and, though the sands were soon choked with the mother of all logjams, exacerbated by a swelling tide, the British were firmly lodged; a bridgehead had been secured, albeit a rather flimsy one at this juncture.

This is the story of the British soldiers’ experience of the beach landings on that fateful morning - the spearhead of Operation Overlord.

• Published

  to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the battle on 6 June 2019.

• Fully

  illustrated with colour photographs of the battlefield today together with

  historical images from June 1944.

• Draws

  heavily on surviving veteran testimony

• Major

  series of anniversary events / TV shows planned for June 2019 will drive

  interest in the history of D-Day.

• Reviews

  in the military and history press to include Military History Magazine, Legion: The Magazine of the British Legion,

  Soldier: The Magazine of the British Army

  and The Officer Magazine and BBC History

  Magazine.