SIXTY years ago this June the military operation that was to help free Europe from the tyranny of Hitler and Nazism got under way.

Code-named Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of France was launched on D-Day - June 6, 1944. It was one of the major turning points of the Second World War.

The operation, the largest invasion in history, was the crucial push to prise western Europe from Hitler’s grasp.

Some 5,000 naval and transport craft, forming 75 convoys, carried troops to the shores of Normandy. They were protected by 12,000 Allied aircraft.

Five seaborne divisions, comprising 75,000 British and Canadians, 57,500 Americans, 900 armoured vehicles 600 guns landed on five beaches, codenamed Gold, Sword and Juno (for the British and Canadians) and Utah and Omaha (for the Americans).

The seaborne landings were also supplemented by three divisions of airborne landings, comprising of 27,000 men and 867 towed gliders.

The technical problems posed by the landings and the logistics of supplying the Allied forces, to enable them to break out from the beachheads, were unprecedented.

However, they inspired scientific inventions on a scale that had never been seen in such a short time. Among them were the artificial Mulberry harbours and the Pluto pipeline - a cross-channel fuel pipe to supply Allied vehicles.

D-Day was one of the best-kept secrets of all time. Indeed It remains a miracle how the Germans were kept in the dark about the largest invasion in history until it was too late and Allied troops and weaponry were already pouring onto Normandy’s beaches.

Although ultimately successful, the Normandy landings were not to be without cost to the Allied forces. It has been estimated that there were about 9,000 to 10,000 Allied casualties of which a third lost their lives - more than 2,000 of them Americans trying to take Omaha beach

D-Day was later to go down in history as the longest day. And to commemorate its 60th anniversary the Kent Messenger Group will be producing a special supplement.

If you or anyone in your family were involved in some way with the D-Day landings we would like to here from you. Write to: Stephen Hedges at the Kent Messenger, 6 & 7 Middle Row, Maidstone, Kent ME14 1TG or e-mail shedges@thekmgroup.co.uk