Newport plans D-Day Parade on 75th anniversary of Normandy landings

This year's commemorations coincide with the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings.

Participants in the parade will meet outside The John Wallace Linton (Wetherspoon's pub) in Cambrian Road from 11.30am.

The parade will leave at 11.45am to walk the route from Cambrian Road, turning left onto the pedestrianised area of Bridge Street, then left onto High Street to the D-Day Memorial, where a short service and wreath-laying ceremony will take place.

Standard bearers at the D-Day memorial service in Newport. Picture: www.christinsleyphotography.co.uk (Image: www.christinsleyphotography.co.uk)

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The Royal Welsh Comrades Association, which has organised the parade, has invited members of the public to lend their support by lining the streets to watch the parade.

Road closures will be in place along the route between 7am and 1pm.

­— What is D-Day?

D-Day – June 6, 1944 – was the first day of Operation Overlord, the Allied Forces' massive naval and aerial invasion of northern France, which like much of Europe had been occupied by Nazi Germany.

On the morning of June 6, more than 150,000 Allied troops landed on five Normandy beaches in what was the largest amphibious invasion force in history.

British forces during the invasion of Normandy, June 6 1944. Picture: Crown copyright/No 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit, Midgley (Sgt)

They were supported by several thousand paratroopers who had been dropped in behind enemy lines hours earlier to disrupt German defences.

The Allies' strategy was to open a second front in the war with Germany, diverting some of the Nazis' manpower and resources from the east, where they were embroiled in bitter fighting with the Soviet Union.

Allied troops had also landed in Sicily and mainland Italy in 1943 and early 1944, respectively.

The Normandy landings did not end the European war but it did signal the end of the Nazis' supremacy in the northwest of the continent.

Following the Allied invasion, the Nazis were generally on the back foot and most of France was liberated by September 1944.