By Darren Boyle As thousands of veterans remember the sacrifice of their fallen comrades who gave their lives during the opening days of Operation Overlord, life at many of the locations that saw the heaviest fighting continues as normal. In a fitting tribute to the fight against Nazi tyranny, young children are enjoying the freedom secured by those brave men and women on those dark days 70 years ago as the allies struggled for a foot-hold on mainland Europe. By the end of the first day, in the region of 160,00 allied troops had made it ashore along a 50 mile stretch of the Normandy coastline at a cost of 4,000 lives.
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One photographer armed with a handful of D-Day photographs went out to find the original locations
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Then, using the exact spot used 70 years ago, a new photograph of the same scene was taken
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From troops loading in Weymouth, Dorset, to the aftermath of the battle for Caen there is a striking similarity
Special tanks were deployed on @placeholder to destroy some of the four million mines which had been deployed to kill and maim soldiers and disable armour.