80 years ago tomorrow the liberation of Europe from the horrors of the Nazis began

with Operation Overlord the Allied invasion of Normandy. Nearly 200,000 soldiers

principally Americans, Brits, and Canadians, landed on June 6th of

1944 across five beach sectors, Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword.

Malcolm Brabond is in northern France

and met some of the veterans of D-Day,

now all around 100 years old,

to begin our coverage of this 80th anniversary. The bodies in the water.

The bodies in the water. They look like logs floating in the water.

Sergeant Mel Jenner had perhaps the best view of D-Day flying in a top secret mission

photographing the invasion. I couldn't believe that all of all those young

guys down in that water give their life for their country and

and the world to be exact, you know.

East of Omaha, British beaches also have their ghosts.

One of the great things about the war was the combat ship. You were really comrades with your mates.

Bill Wright on the far right and his Sherman Tank crew came ashore at Sword Beach near where a Norwegian destroyer was sunk on D-Day.

We'd known for some time of course what was going to happen and we knew that we were making history

and that was a terrific boost to morale as you can imagine.

I was just 20 years old. At that age, young men don't want a missile on anything. I was so pleased that I was there.

Sub-Lieutenant John Roberts had already seen action, escorting convoys across the North Atlantic.

On D-Day, his ship's big guns battered German defences.

The noise was quite fantastic.

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