Region's veterans gather in Normandy for poignant D-Day commemorations

Veterans from our region are among the thousands of ex-servicemen, world leaders and royalty who have gathered along the Normandy coast for a day of services to mark 70 years since the D-Day invasion.

The 6th June 1944 assault on Nazi strongholds in Northern France is often attributed as one of the most significant turning points of the Second World War, as Hitler's forces began to be gradually pushed back into Germany.

Click below to watch a report from ITV News' David Wood, who's spent the day in Normandy with some of the veterans from the Anglia region.

D-Day in June 1944 was the largest amphibious assault ever launched.

More than 80,000 British and Canadian troops took part in the invasion on the beaches alongside United States Forces, in an Allied force of more than 150,000.

Another 23,400 British troops were landed by air. Supporting the invasion were more than 7,000 ships off the coast and 11,000 aircraft.

In total, there were 4,300 British and Commonwealth casualties killed, wounded or missing on D-Day.