Veterans gathered on the beaches of Normandy to hear world leaders pay tribute to them and their colleagues who died in the D-Day Landings.

The veterans gathered in Northern France for the 60th anniversary commemorations of the Landings – the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany, as it opened up a second front, forcing Hitler to fight in the West as well as against the Soviets in the East.

Commemoration events were staged across the country over the weekend, but the eyes of the nation were on Portsmouth Harbour on Saturday morning as Royal Navy destroyer HMS Gloucester led the Brittany Ferry Normandie out into the Channel on the first stage of their journey to France.

Out in the Solent was the passenger ship Van Gogh, carrying more veterans, and following Normandie were ships from the countries most closely associated with D-Day – the French, represented by destroyer FS Cassard, the United States by destroyer USS Ross, and the Canadians by frigate HMCS Charlottetown. Accompanying the warships was the RFA tanker Wave Knight.

In their wake were a group of historic small boats, including MTB 102, HSL 102, HMS Medusa, MGB 81, RAF 206, the steam ship Challenge – a Dunkirk little ship – as well as two modern Royal Marines landing craft.

As the ships sailed past the Isle of Wight, waved off by a large crowd along Southsea seafront, the RAF’s Battle of Britain Flight – a Lancaster bomber and two Spitfires – flew overhead.

Once across the Channel, having held a service of remembrance, the veterans were joined by leaders of the countries which formed the wartime alliance against the Axis – the Queen and Prime Minister Tony Blair from Britain, President George W. Bush from the United States, French President Jacques Chirac, President Vladimir Putin of Russia, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and the German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

The VIPs attended a number of services and ceremonies in the area of the five beaches – codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword – including those held in the towns of Arromanches, Bayeux, Colleville-sur-Mer and in the city of Caen, scene of more than a month of fierce fighting 60 years ago as the Allies established their foothold in occupied Europe.

The Queen visited the British cemetery in Bayeux, along with Prime Minister Tony Blair and Mr Chirac, after meeting Canadian and British veterans at Juno Beach.

After the main event in Arromanches, hundreds of British veterans marched before the Queen in the centre of the small town in the heat of the early summer sun.

"What for you is a haunting memory of danger and sacrifice one summer long ago, is for your country, and for generations of your countrymen to come, one of the proudest moments in our long national history," the Queen told them.

"I take it upon myself to express the immense debt of gratitude we owe to you all."

Almost 25,000 British and American paratroopers were dropped inland on D-Day, and more than 132,000 troops were landed by sea on to the Normandy beaches.

Allied casualties on D-Day are estimated at 10,000, of whom 2,500 were killed. German casualties are not known but are estimated at between 4,000 and 9,000. By the time the Battle of Normandy was over, and the Allies were on their way to Germany, around 250,000 people had died.

D-Day took over a year to plan, and involved many months of training and some major subterfuge.

The air and sea assault was dependent on tides, good weather, and surprise. Stormy weather forced postponement of the original date, June 5, but when conditions improved the invasion went ahead on June 6, under the watchful eye of Supreme Allied Commander Gen Dwight Eisenhower.

As well as 157,000 troops, around 6,000 ships and landing craft were involved, delivering forces to the five beaches along a stretch of the Normandy coast which had been carefully chosen after much planning – including the studying of picture postcards.

As D-Day, codenamed Operation Overlord, loomed, a second invasion force was set up for Operation Fortitude – a gigantic bluff, involving a supposed plan to invade southern Norway from Scotland and the Pas de Calais from Dover.

The Germans fell for the ruse, which was backed up by realistic-looking fleets of fake landing craft in the East Anglian ports and rubber tanks scattered around Kent, and even weeks after D-Day the German commanders were loathe to commit too many troops to Normandy for fear of being unable to repel the ‘real’ invasion when it materialised.

Once the beaches of Normandy were secure, progress through the narrow lanes and towns was slow, but superior Allied air power and a massive logistics operation pouring men and machinery into the beachheads meant the liberators were unstoppable – though they paid a heavy price; by the time Paris was freed in late August, around one in ten of the Allies' two million troops had been killed, wounded or were missing.