Alfie Booker still remembers the noises, smells and smoke from D-Day. The 97-year-old was a Royal Navy able seaman responsible for the ammunition on HMS Ramillies.

Aged 17 at the time, he says they didn’t know a lot because they weren’t told a lot other than “you’ll be in action tomorrow”.

His battleship arrived at Sword Beach on the north-west coast of France that day.

“What we saw is the main thing that I can’t forget,” he says.

“All them young lads running and climbing up the beach to get out the way of the German machine guns firing everywhere, mowing them down, terrible. Shells dropping down, tearing people apart, legs, arms flying all over the place. Dreadful.”

The D-Day landings in 1944 were the biggest invasion by sea in history.

Up to 7,000 ships and landing craft were involved, delivering a total of 156,000 men to five beaches in the Normandy region of France.

On D-Day alone, as many as 4,400 troops died from the combined allied forces.

About 9,000 were wounded or missing.

Total German casualties on the day are not known, but are estimated as being between 4,000 and 9,000 men.

Thousands of French civilians also died.

Events are taking place today across the UK and in France to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in World War Two.

We'll be following commemorative events across the West Midlands region and hearing from veterans and their families.