Like the D-Day heroes, we must unite against tyranny

They did not want to be treated as heroes, and insisted they were merely doing their duty. But the 40 British veterans who travelled to Normandy for yesterday's moving ceremonies to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day were rightly greeted as heroes by the French people who thanked them for the inspirational acts of courage which rescued their country from the horrors of Nazi occupation.

Anniversaries have become something of a devalued currency but D-Day is one of those rare, pivotal events that deserves all the attention it gets. It provides a moment to reflect on the remarkable operation that changed the course of the Second World War, and thus history.

The greatest amphibious operation the world has seen involved 156,000 seaborne and airborne troops from Britain, the United States and Canada landing in Normandy on 6 June 1944, marking the start of Operation Overlord. More than 4,400 Allied troops were killed on that day – a tragic loss but, given the huge risks, a figure that could easily have been much higher. DDay was only the beginning; nor should we forget that more than 220,000 Allied service personnel perished in the bloody Battle of Normandy before Paris was liberated in August 1944.