16-year-old Daisy Black of Newcastle-under-Lyme School in Staffordshire was the Senior Award winner in the Spirit of Normandy Trust Young Historian competition in 2007. Having been judged the winner by the Young Historian panel, the Spirit of Normandy Trsutees were so taken with her entry that they gave her an additional award in memory of General Peter Martin who was one of the heroic force who landed at, and secured, Pegasus Bridge as part of the Normandy Landings in 1944.

The Battle of Normandy was fought in 1944 between Nazi Germany in Western Europe and the invading Allied forces as part of the larger conflict of World War II. Operation Overlord was the codename for the Allied invasion of northwest Europe, which began on 6 June 1944. Operation Neptune was the codename given to the naval bombardment which was the initial assault phase of Operation Overlord; its mission, to gain a foothold on the continent on the date commonly known as D-Day.

In many ways Sword Beach was the key to success in the Normandy landings. It was the nearest beach to Caen, the capital of the area and the prize that would need to be taken to allow a breakout. The plan was to land the 3rd Infantry Division (‘Monty's Ironsides'), who would then link up with 6th Airborne Division on the Eastern Flank. The 3rd Division would...