In pictures: D-Day inventions

American boat builder Andrew Higgins played a crucial role in D-Day by mass producing thousands of landing craft.

The Higgins boat was designed to skim on the surface of the sea and had a forward ramp.

It meant troops and supplies could be delivered directly onto the beaches without the need to capture or maintain a port in the early hours of an invasion.

Eisenhower said without Higgins the war would not have been won.