Others had now liberated the Buffet du Tramway, a café on the same Bénouville side of the bridge; it was the first French building to be liberated from the Nazi yoke. The owner, Georges Gondrée, propmtly dug up ninety-nine bottles of champagne he had kept hidden in his garden and offered them to Major Howard and his men.

War games for how to deal with an airborne assault on the Cotentin had been planned for 6 June

However, Generalmajor Josef Reichert, commander of the 711. Infanterie-Division, soon recognised this was no diversion when one of the scattered British paratroopers from 3rd Brigade landed right on top of his headquarters as he and his staff played a late-night game of cards.

Via the BBC, British civilians had also been asked to send in any postcards and photographs people might have kept from France before the war. Millions poured in and those from Normandy were carefully put to one side and analysed to help create a clearer picture of the cities, towns, villages, beaches and countryside from the ground.

I know the comparison is cliche but, uh. That's a hell of a parallel to current events