British veterans mark 82nd anniversary of D-Day

British veterans have joined commemorations in Normandy to mark the 82nd anniversary of D-Day.

On Saturday morning, a handful of the surviving British soldiers made the journey to France to attend the annual Ceremony of Remembrance at the British Normandy Memorial.

Three of the veterans were seated at the front of the ceremony, ahead of the UK’s military and political representatives, including John Healey, the Defence Secretary.

The sun pierced through intermittent rain clouds as 100-year-old veteran Ken Hay stood to recite the remembrance poem before observing a minute of silence with a tissue to his face.

Wreaths were laid at the foot of the stone memorial on which more than 22,000 names are engraved.

Members of Unesco were also in attendance as the United Nations considers designating the Normandy beaches a World Heritage Site.

It was the first remembrance ceremony in Normandy since an extra 98 names were added to the memorial, which sits above what was known as Gold Beach.

Inaccurate record keeping meant that some who had fought in the battle were not featured on the memorial until they were added in April this year.

“To most people coming here they’re just a series of names,” 100-year-old veteran Kenneth Hay told the BBC. “To people like myself, they’re people, I can see their faces.”

Sir Keir Starmer marked the anniversary of the D-Day landings by sharing an image on social media with veteran Henry Rice – who he met earlier this year.

The Prime Minister wrote: “82 years ago, on the beaches of Normandy, brave British and Allied forces changed the course of history forever.

“We must never forget the service and sacrifice of those brave men and women.

“One of those servicemen is Henry Rice, who I recently had the privilege of meeting in 10 Downing Street.

“Henry’s service and that of his generation, will never be forgotten.”

The Royal Navy shared an image of soldiers on HMS Dragon, which is on operations in the Arabian Sea, paying a flight deck tribute to those involved in the “great crusade and the largest amphibious operation in history”.

Earlier in the day, French schoolchildren walked across Juno Beach to mark H-Hour, the time at which British servicemen were deployed.

Serving military staff, the grandson of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomeryand pipers from the Jedburgh Pipe Band marched with the schoolchildren on Saturday morning.

Nearly 160,000 Allied troops landed on June 6, 1944 to fight in Nazi-occupied France.

While the exact number of German casualties is unknown, historians estimate between 4,000 and 9,000 men were killed, wounded or missing.

On the Allied front, a total of 4,414 died.

The Battle of Normandy, which followed the landings, left 73,000 Allied servicemen dead with 153,000 wounded.

[Source: Daily Telegraph]