D-Day veterans honoured 70 years after Normandy landings

Both Queen and President reached out and shook the hands of heroes as wartime allies came together and reached back into seventy years of history.

Sharing in that history, Prince William and Kate, helping to turn a day the veterans had been looking forward to, into one they and their families will never forget

ITV News Europe Editor James mates reports:

More: Veteran missing from care home found at Normandy service

Helicopters dropped one million rose petals on New York's Statue of Liberty today in tribute to the sacrifice made by American soldiers on D-Day 70 years ago.

The display was organised by the group The French Will Never Forget with backing from the French authorities.

D-Day veterans joined hands for a rousing rendition of Auld Lang Syne at today's 70th anniversary commemorations in Normandy.

The Football Association displayed a wreath on England's training pitch in Miami to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings.

England's players are training in Miami ahead the World Cup, which begins in Brazil next week.

Never before seen footage of soldiers training for the D-Day invasion has been released.

You can see in this video from the Assault Training Centre Friends a setup of how the invasion was planned to go ahead:

A British Major serving in Afghanistan has helped recreate an image of his grandfather taken after the D-Day landings in Normandy.

Major Ed O'Brien of the Scots Dragoon Guards is the grandson of Roderick Norris, who commanded a tank unit during the Allied campaign to liberate occupied France.

The British Army tweeted a 'then and now' shot of the scene, with the modern version showing Major O'Brien alongside a US Army vehicle in Afghanistan's Helmand province.

In an article on the Army's Facebook page, Major O'Brien recalls touring Normandy with his grandfather decades after the original landings.

"It was fascinating going round and seeing, you know we were literally driving through villages, and he went 'I remember this… we came up here… there was a German Panzer at the end of the street'. It was just incredible," he said.

A D-Day veteran who survived being shot, and still has the bullet to prove it, has paid tribute to the friends he lost and the ‘luck’ that got him home.

Harry Evans was just 18 when he was called up to fight, and turned 20 on the eve of the journey which would stay with him for the rest of his life.

Now a great-great grandfather, the 90-year-old recalls preparing for the trip to Normandy: "We made jokes amongst ourselves," he says, "but in reality we were all scared to death."