For nearly 70 years, visitors to the D-Day beaches have stared out to sea and recalled the moment when one of the largest fleets ever assembled emerged from the Channel mist on 6 June 1944.

Within a couple of years that view could be changed forever by an immense off-shore wind-farm.

As The Independent revealed two years ago, a site in the Bay of the Seine, six miles off the invasion beaches, has been selected by the French government for an array of 75 wind generators, each of them more than half the height of the Eiffel Tower.

Protests launched by commemorative and environmental groups have since spread around the world. Thousands of people, including many from Britain and Canada, have signed a petition organised by a group called European Platform Against Windfarms. Weve had calls from Canada, England, the US, saying France cannot do this to us, said Jean-Louis Butr, chairman of the organisation. People are very upset. One former RAF Group Captain said that, if necessary, he would come back and bomb the beaches again.

The 1.8bn (1.5bn) project is popular in Normandy, where it will create 7,000 jobs and pump millions of euros in taxes into a stumbling local economy. It forms part of an ambitious strategy to provide almost a quarter of Frances needs from renewable energy by the end of the decade.

Over the next four months, an official debate including 11 public meetings is taking place across lower Normandy to consider arguments for and against the project. The president of the special commission running the debate which is neutral and independent wants the voices of Britons, including veterans and their families, to be heard.

These beaches are not just French beaches. They are also British beaches and American beaches and Canadian beaches, Claude Brvantold The Independent. They are a place of great, symbolic importance. We in France have a duty to be aware of that.

One public debate, in Arromanches on 12 June, will take place in English and French.

Some of the British veterans organisations tell us that they dont want to get involved in anything political, Ms Brevan said. This is not political. It is an independent public debate on an issue of great importance. If there are British questions, worries or complaints about this project, we want to hear about them now.

The wind-farm 75 large generators, 175m high, covering an area of 50 sq km would be built six miles off the small seaside town and fishing port of Courseulles-sur-Mer. On June 6 1944, the sands either side of the town formed Juno Beach where 21,000 Canadian and British troops fought their way ashore, with the loss of 359 lives.

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Will they site them on the beaches ? D-Day for veterans' fight to stop Normandy wind farms