D-Day minute by terrifying minute: Joltingly vivid account retells how Operation Overlord unfolded as 150,000 Allied troops gambled everything to defeat the Nazis and change the course of history

Tomorrow marks the 80th anniversary of D-Day at Normandy, the largest seaborne invasion in history, which begun of the liberation of France and western Europe from the Nazis. This location was used as a launching place for Allied troops participating in the invasion Operation Overlord Normandy troops are boarding a Landing Craft Infantry in Southern England on 5th June 1944 DUKWs, amphibious trucks useful for beach landings, are loaded onto an LST during preparations for the D-Day invasion, June 1944 1.55: Out in the Channel, on board the British troop ship Princess Ingrid, almost every soldier is on the upper deck, waiting for a church service to begin. Rupert Curtis, flotilla officer for landing craft 519, later recalled: ‘The skirl of the pipes worked some strange magic, for it set the troops in the waiting transports cheering from ship to ship.’ American troops in a landing craft approaching Utah beach on D-Day This photograph from the National Archives taken on June 6, 1944, shows US Army troops wading ashore at Omaha Beach in north-western France, during the D-Day invasion Picture taken on June 6, 1944 in Normandy showing the Allied forces soldiers involved in the landing operation aimed at fighting the German Wehrmacht as part of the Second World War 7.00: At the Berghof, Hitler, his girlfriend Eva Braun, and propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels are watching the latest newsreel with reports of the war. Photograph taken on June 6, 1944, shows soldiers unloading equipment on Omaha Beach, Normandy, north-western France after the initial D-Day invasion Allied Forces landing on the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944 6th June 1944: In the distance American Infantrymen are wading towards the beach on the Northern Coast of France during the D-Day Landings 10.30: On a troop ship heading for Juno Beach, 24-year-old Lieutenant James Doohan from Canada has won £3,600 playing craps. He tells the ambassador that de Gaulle is guilty of ‘treason at the height of battle’ and that the sacrifice of the Allied soldiers is: ‘Blood that has no value for you!’ Rangers firing from a bunker between Pointe du Hoc and Omaha Beach Picture taken on June 6, 1944 in Normandy showing the Allied forces soldiers involved in the landing operation aimed at fighting the German Wehrmacht as part of the Second World War Tuesday June 6, 1944 12.07am: As the Halifax bombers release the tow-ropes to the gliders, the British paratroopers stop singing.