On This Day - How Norfolk prepared for D-Day in June 1944

As Hitler's armies amassed in France and Holland, men from the Royal Norfolk Regiment readied themselves to land at the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944, as part of a 133,000-strong invasion of mainland Europe.

This operation was codenamed Overlord - but is better known as D-Day.

Men from the Royal Norfolk Regiment stormed Sword beach on June 6, 1944, as part of the D-Day landings (Image: PA)

Norfolk men from the 1st Battalion landed as part of the 3rd Infantry Division on Sword beach, encountering light resistance.

Bill Holden, a veteran of the assault, recounted their first battle. 

He said: "The Battalion’s first objective was Bellvue Farm, codename Rover.

"Around midway there, the two leading companies came under heavy machine gun fire from a very large German bunker.

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"The Battalion suffered approximately 50 killed and wounded and finally captured their target, which they nicknamed Norfolk House." 

Leading up to D-Day, intelligence suggested the sand at Normandy was too soft to land amphibious tanks on, but it was discovered that the sand at Brancaster Estate, in north Norfolk, was almost identical.

Seventeen Norfolk airbases were used by American Air Force personnel during the war (Image: Newsquest)

Tanks from the 79th Armoured Brigade went to Brancaster to practise landing where it was deemed suitable enough, leading to a successful assault on June 6.

The area around Brancaster was also used as a practice bombing range for the Royal Air Force.

One target, the SS Vina, can still be seen from the beach today.

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No fewer than 17 air bases around Norfolk were used by American servicemen, 50,000 of who had been stationed in the county from 1942 onwards.

The 2nd and 3rd Divisions of the "Mighty Eighth" Air Force occupied bases at Attlebridge, Bodney, Deopham Green, East Wretham, Hardwick, Hethel, Horsham St Faith, North Pickenham, Old Buckenham, Rackheath, Seething, Shipdham, Snetterton Heath, Thorpe Abbotts, Tibenham, Watton and Wendling.

Around 6,300 men from the exclusively Norfolk-based 2nd Division lost their lives in German raids and it is estimated that at least 350,000 US servicemen transitioned through East Anglia throughout the duration of the war.