D Day Ships

D-Day, one of the most decisive moments of the Second World War, could not have happened without thousands of landing craft. Yet their role, and that of their crews, has often been overlooked.

In the spring of 1944, in one steamroller offensive, nearly two hundred thousand troops landed on the coast of France in a last ditch effort to reverse the Nazi occupation of Europe. It was a plan orchestrated by the greatest military minds the Allies could muster. But there were others who have been forgotten - a colourful collection of inventors and boffins who were drafted in to design and build an all-new mechanised armoury: machines that could breathe fire, tanks that could swim, and a huge array of other ingenious gadgets and devices that would penetrate the weak spots in Hitler's impressive defences.