In pictures: Remembering D-Day

Events are taking place in Normandy to mark the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings. Douglas Baines, 84, of 12th Yorkshire Parachute Regiment, was among those who fought on that momentous day.

Mr Baines and other veterans watched a mass parachute drop by 3 Para at the Pegasus Memorial in Ranville. Today's Paras jumped at 800ft from Hercules and Dakota aircraft.

Another British veteran, Peter Thompson, 83, returned to Sword Beach, Hermanville, where he landed on 6 June 1944. Mr Thompson turned 19 on D-Day - tomorrow will be his 84th birthday.

Returning veterans were greeted warmly by local people in Normandy. French officials have said they will give their highest military award - the Legion d'Honneur - to 10 Britons who served on D-Day.

Dutch Commandos paid their own tribute at Pegasus Bridge near the town of Caen. The Allies' seizure of the bridge shortly after the landings was a crucial blow to German commanders.

Beside the bridge stands the first home in France liberated by the Allies in 1944. It is still owned by the same family, the Gondrees, although today it is a cafe with a plaque to mark its significance.

German troops held a ceremony at the military cemetery of La Cambe. They buried the body of a German soldier killed during World War II and found two weeks ago in a field in Grandcamp Maisy.

American veterans also visited the German military cemetery. The US Army suffered heavy losses on D-Day when they came up against crack German troops on Omaha Beach.

On D-Day alone, as many as 4,400 Allied troops died. Total German casualties are not known, but are estimated at between 4,000 and 9,000 men. Thousands of French civilians were also killed.