This is a History Extra production.

On the morning of the 6th of June, 1944, the largest seaborne invasion in history got underway on the beaches of Normandy.

From dawn until dusk,

thousands upon thousands of men and vehicles were taken ashore by Allied sailors, who resolutely

carried out their duties under heavy enemy fire. Yet that wasn't all they did. From bombarding

German strongholds to sweeping the coastal waters for mines, the sailors were active combatants,

pivotal to the success not just of D-Day itself, but the long and difficult months that lay ahead.

My name's John Borkham, and in today's episode of D-Day, land, air and sea,

I'll be talking to Nick Hewitt about the naval aspect of the Normandy campaign,

spanning both the initial assault phase Operation Neptune right through to the liberation of

Lahav three months later. I began my discussion with Nick by asking him to provide a short

summary of the key events. I guess the real question about what the Allied navies did on the 6th of June

1944 is what didn't they do? They literally did everything. So Operation Neptune is the largest,

most complex amphibious operation in history. Amphibious operations don't work without ships and sailors.

So sailors are involved in the planning and training and

development stage. They're involved from the very beginning from the moment that choice is made to

go to Normandy. They're involved in getting the troops across, obviously, which is perhaps the

only thing that anybody knows that they did. They're involved in providing gunfire support for the

troops to get them ashore. They're involved in providing gunfire support for the troops to get them ashore.

They're involved in clearing obstacles on the beaches, flying observation missions, working ashore

with the soldiers, spotting gunfire. And then afterwards, they're responsible for keeping the army ashore,

keeping them sustained with supplies and reinforcements, getting their wounded out,

...