D-Day in numbers: The facts behind the largest seaborne invasion in history

  • ITV News Meridian's presenter Sangeeta Bhabra takes us through the facts and figures of D-Day

As events across the UK and France mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, ITV News Meridian is taking a look back at the facts and figures behind the largest and most complex combined military operation of all time.

The Normandy landings were the largest seaborne invasion in history, with the 1944 battle laying the foundation for an Allied victory.

Troops from the UK, the USA, Canada, and France attacked German forces on the beaches at Normandy in northern France on June 6, 1944.

Australia, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, Greece, Holland, New Zealand, Norway and Poland were also involved.

Re-enactors on Gold Beach in Arromanches at sunrise in Normandy, France, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings. Credit: Aaron Chown/PA Wire/PA Images

D-Day began, just after midnight, when the men of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry landed in France in gliders to secure two key bridges.

They were followed throughout the day by 23,000 airborne troops, landing by glider or parachute.

In all, 156,000 troops were in action on D-Day.

Most crossed the English Channel by sea, leaving from ports or from strips of concrete along the shoreline and from many other places.

In all, almost 7,000 vessels were used to carry all the military and naval units that were needed. 11,590 Allied aircraft took part.

More than 13,000 Allied and German troops are thought to have been killed.

Around 20,000 French civilians died in the battle for Normandy.

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