A 104-YEAR-OLD woman has been celebrated after her secret map-making efforts helped make D-Day a success.

Christian Lamb was a British naval officer during the Second World War who was tasked with drawing up the maps for the D-Day invasion.

She was one of only a handful of people who knew about the plans – codenamed Operation Overlord – that saw Allied forced invade Nazi-occupied Normandy on June 6, 1945.

Last Tuesday (May 20), veterans and historians gathered to celebrate her remarkable achievements at Syrencot House in Salisbury, where Operation Overlord was planned in 1943.

Christian said she was kept in an office by herself while she carried out her secretive work that was integral to the success of the invasion.

She made the maps which were then delivered to Syrencot House, where Lieutenant General “Boy” Browning and other generals would use them to see what the shore looked like.

“A ship coming in from England would try to identify where things were and be able to see things like churches, stations – anything visible from the distance,” she said.

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“I had to try and arrange something that would help and they provided me with an office entirely to myself.

“I found it enjoyable – I suppose you can concentrate more when you’re on your own.”

She said at the time it was “impossible” to know whether her work had helped the invasion or not.

Her son Martin Lamb also attended the celebration in Salisbury and said he was “extremely proud” of his mother.

“As a family we didn’t know anything about it,” he said.

Last year the French president Emmanuel Macron awarded Christian with the Légion d’honneur for her service – the highest French Order of Merit for Military and civil merits.

During the war she worked in the War Office in Whitehall.