Western leaders will commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings today, recalling the biggest ever wartime invasion when thousands of troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, having crossed the English Channel in a major storm.

The landings, in 1944, came at huge cost of human life, but marked the beginning of the end of the Second World War, with Adolf Hitler committing suicide in May 1945 as Germany surrendered.

US President Biden will lead the commemorations in France, joined by King Charles of Britain and the leaders of France and other Western countries.

The D-Day landings were not the first landings on the European mainland, having been preceded a year earlier by the landings in Sicily and Italy, spearheaded from Malta.

But there was a tiny representation of Malta on the Normandy beaches as well, with some Maltese taking part in the assault.

The National Archives on Thursday highlighted Ralph Zammit from Birkirkara, who participated in the invasion of Normandy as an American soldier.  

Together with his brother Amante he emigrated to Bronx (New York) in 1938. In May 1943 he was sent to train in the Californian desert and ended up fighting in Europe until he was wounded in Germany in 1945, the National Archives said.

Ralph returned to Malta in 1955. 

His son Charles contributed the photos to the MEMORJA project, run by the National Archives.  

Twenty years ago Times of Malta reported about two other Maltese having taken part in the landings - Charles Baldacchino and John Galea, of Valletta. Both survived.