Many strong military leaders emerged during the Second World War, each playing prominent parts which led Britain to victory over Germany. Here are some who influenced the outcome of the war.
:: Sir Winston Churchill was elected Prime Minister in May 1940, seven months after the Second World War began.
Churchill was staunch in his beliefs and made a plea for rearmament shortly before war broke out warning of the rise of Nazi Germany.
He played a prominent role in planning the D-Day invasion and chose to walk the streets while the raids were taking place.
Churchill built a strong relationship with the US while maintaining an alliance with the Soviet Union.
He refused to surrender to Nazi Germany, a stance which served as encouragement for the British resistance against Hitler.
Churchill lost power in the post-war election but remained the leader of the opposition, becoming Prime Minister again in 1951.
He resigned in 1955 but remained an MP until shortly before his death in January 1965.
He was also a prolific writer and awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953.
:: General Dwight D Eisenhower was instrumental in planning the D-Day invasion in Normandy.
He was a five-star general in the United States Army and led the Allied troops in Europe during the Second World War.
He was responsible for planning the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944 and 1945 from the Western Front.
In January 1953 he was elected President of the United States where he remained in office for eight years.
He died in 1969, aged 78.
:: Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery, nicknamed Monty, became famous for his victory at the Battle of El Alamein in November 1942 which, according to Churchill, marked a turning point in the war.
During the war he was recalled to the UK to help plan the invasion of Normandy and during the landings Montgomery commanded all Allied troops in France.
On May 4 1945, Montgomery, who was leading his army group in the battle for Germany, received the surrender of the German northern armies at Luneburg Heath.
:: Erwin Rommel, known as the Desert Fox, was a German field marshal, who commanded the German forces opposing the Allied cross-Channel invasion of Normandy.
Towards the end of the war he was linked to a conspiracy to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
He was forced to commit suicide with a cyanide pill following a failed bomb attack on Hitler in 1944 in return for assurances that his family would not be persecuted following his death.
:: Sir Bertram Ramsay was a British Admiral who oversaw the defence against possible destroyer raids, the protection of cross-Channel military traffic and the denial of the passage through the Straits of Dover by submarines.
Ramsay was appointed the Naval Force Commander for the invasion of Europe and was aboard the HMS Belfast, a cruiser assigned to bombardment duties, during the D-Day landings.
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