On D-Day, 6 June 1944, Allied forces launched a combined naval, air and land assault on Nazi-occupied France. Codenamed Operation ‘Overlord’, the Allied landings on the Normandy beaches marked the start of a long and costly campaign to liberate north-west Europe from German occupation.

Newspaper supplied by Ernie Race (daily newspaper serving the Sunderland, South Tyneside, East Durham areas of North East England)

The Sunderland Echo leader column that day said: “Europe has groaned under the brutal heel of the Nazi conqueror, but her people have never doubted Britain’s promise to come back and free them.”