War and Peace Show 1944 Project

Introduction

They came in their thousands by air and by sea not knowing if they would survive or perish. On D-Day itself 150,000 fighting men landed in Normandy. Many got no further than the beaches.

With them came an amazing range of mechanical equipment: flail tanks to clear paths through the minefields, gun tractors, field artillery, tanks, trucks, amphibious vehicles  and of course hundreds of ambulances.

To get them ashore a massive concrete and steel artificial harbour was towed across the Channel in sections and assembled off the beaches.

By August 25 when Paris was liberated, three million individuals had crossed the English Channel to France. Each had just one objective – to defeat Nazism. If they had failed today’s children would be growing up in a world of tyranny and oppression.

2009 saw the 65th anniversary of the Normandy invasion. Survivors of the operation are a proud but dwindling group of individuals most of whom have reached their 80s or 90s.

The War and Peace Show is paying its own tribute to these heroes by telling their stories so that present and future generations will learn of their courage and understand the sacrifices they made. The War and Peace Show 1944 Project is also a salute to those who died in battle during the invasion, and to survivors who have since died.