The planning which went into the D-Day landings may have been meticulous but there was one thing troops could not rely on - the weather.

The fate of thousands of Allied soldiers due to land in France as part of Operation Overlord lay with the weather and a team of weathermen to tell them the right time to put the plan into action.

Scottish meteorologist Group Captain James Stagg was the man who had to advise General Eisenhower of the small window they had on certain days in which the operation could be carried out.

He was also the man who persuaded him to delay the launch to allow for better weather.

Stagg had been appointed chief meteorological adviser to Eisenhower and headed a committee of meteorologists who forecast weather conditions in the English Channel in the run up to D-Day.

But low-lying cloud, rain, high winds and stormy seas hit at the beginning of June and the weather was still so bad on the morning of June 4 that the invasion was postponed by one day - from June 5 to June 6 - a decision which ultimately saved the lives of thousands of soldiers.

Stagg was knighted in 1954 and served as director of services at the Meteorological Office until 1960.