Battleships in World War II part of Operation Neptune, in support of the D-Day landings in June 1944. D-Day also saw the deliberate sacrifice of two old dreadnoughts ( and ), which were scuttled as part of the breakwater around the Allied Mulberry harbours. The sinking of "Prince of Wales" and "Repulse" off the coast of Malaya in 1941 demonstrated that even the most modern battleships could not hold off aerial attacks without decent aerial defenses. The British HACS fire control system had been rendered inoperable by the extreme heat and humidity of the Malaya tropical climate, and the anti-aircraft artillery had managed to shoot
Australian contribution to the Battle of Normandy their contribution. "Normandy" is also one of the 47 battle sites recorded on the Australian War Memorial, London, which was dedicated in 2003. In 2004, Australian Prime Minister John Howard attended the ceremonies in France that marked the 60th anniversary of the Normandy invasion. The French Government also awarded the Legion of Honour to ten of the surviving Australian veterans of the landings to commemorate this anniversary. In 2014, Prime Minister Tony Abbott and a party of seven Australian veterans of the campaign attended ceremonies held to commemorate the 70th anniversary of D-Day. When the Mémorial de Caen opened in