D-Day: The paratroopers who spearheaded the attack

One-by-one we lined up behind each other on the runway at Duxford airfield.

Dakota aircraft from all around the world, here for this moment: Sweden, Russia, Norway, the US and Britain.

Eleven thousand watched from the side of the runway, many more came out of their houses, stopped their cars and looked up as we flew low over the south-east of England.

We took off in the late afternoon, scattered cloud and mild sun – 75 years ago they climbed into the darkness with the enemy ahead.

I can’t imagine for a moment the feeling that must have been going through the minds of those young men. Fear? Certainly. Excitement at the task ahead? Quite possibly.

This was the moment the world was expecting. D-Day was no surprise, but the vast numbers of troops involved were.

More than a hundred and fifty thousand young men waded ashore at first light and into the sights of the waiting German guns.

As our wheels left the ground I thought of them with a lump in my throat.

In the seat beside me was the green beret of a young Royal Marine who went onto Juno beach that June dawn. He passed away two weeks ago, aged 97 and with no more fight left in him.

Like so many of his generation, he never thought of himself as a hero. They did it because they were told to. They boarded the boats and the planes to fight for freedom and for each other.

And so that is why Clive Pitt is coming to Normandy with us . His beret is with me on one final journey so that we may remember what he and his friends did that day.

(c) Sky News 2019: D-Day: The paratroopers who spearheaded the attack