PowerPoint Show by Andrew

June 6th, was the 72nd anniversary of the successful 1944 Allied invasion of France. Several operations were combined to carry out the

largest amphibious invasion in history - over 160,000 troops landed on June 6th, assisted by over 5,000 ships, aerial bombardment, gliders and paratroopers.

Thousands of soldiers lost their lives on those beaches

on that day - many thousands more would follow as the invasion succeeded and troops began to push German forces eastward, eventually leading to the Allied victory in 1945.

U.S. Soldiers march through a southern English coastal town, en route to board landing ships for the invasion of France, June 1944.

Jeeps are being loaded onto landing craft - in background, larger trucks and ducks are being loaded, June 1944.

British landing craft, preparing to sail the English Channel and invade Nazi-occupied France. These landing craft landed U.S. troops on Omaha Beach.

A-20 bombers make a bombing run on Pointe Du Hoc coastal battery.

Allied convoys of ships on the open sea - June 1944.

Allied troop carriers near Omaha beach, one covered with a thick white smoke.

U.S. soldiers approach Omaha Beach, their weapons wrapped in plastic to keep them dry.

U.S. troops disembark from a landing vehicle on Utah Beach on the coast of Normandy.

An 88mm shell explodes on Utah Beach. In the foreground, American soldiers protect themselves from enemy fire.

Aerial view of the Normandy Invasion.

U.S. soldiers land on Utah Beach.

U.S. soldiers rescue shipwreck survivors on Utah Beach.

Allied soldiers, vehicles and equipment swarm onto the French shore during the Normandy landings.

Photo taken on D+2, after relief forces reached the Rangers at Point du Hoc.

Two U.S. soldiers escort a group of ten German prisoners on Omaha Beach.

American soldiers on Omaha Beach recover the dead after the D-Day invasion.

Three U.S. soldiers take a rest at the foot of a bunker which the Germans have painted and camouflaged to look like a house.

The corpse of a German soldier, in front of a bunker overlooking the coast.

Allied tanks on the move near Barenton, France.

In a farm courtyard, U.S. soldiers discuss an attack plan.

U.S. soldiers move inland from the beaches of France.

American soldiers crawl toward shelter on a street in Saint-Lo, France.

View of the station and destroyed town of Saint-Lo.

The liberation of Saint-Lo, Summer 1944.

Bodies of U.S. soldiers are attended to in the French countryside.

French townspeople lay flowers on the body of an American soldier.

Peter Smoothy, 86, who was a leading writer in the Royal Navy on D-Day visits the grave of a fallen comrade on June 6, 2010 in Bayeux, France. Across Normandy several hundred of the surviving veterans of the Normandy campaign are commemorating the 72nd anniversary of the D-Day landings which eventually led to the Allied liberation of France in 1944.