Veterans attend services in Normandy to mark 81 years since D-Day
Veterans and officials have attended memorial services in Normandy to commemorate the 81st anniversary of the D-Day landings.
A remembrance service was held at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer, which was attended by the ever-dwindling number of surviving veterans in their late 90s and older, remembering the thousands who died that day.
D-Day veteran and ambassador for the British Normandy Memorial, Ken Hay, 99, and Royal Navy D-Day veteran Henry Rice, 99, laid wreaths at the memorial. Mervyn Kersh, 100, a D-Day veteran. / Credit: ITV News
Mervyn Kersh was 19 on D-Day. Eight decades on, now 100 years old, his memories of being sent ashore on Gold Beach and towards German gunfire are as vivid as ever.
'In the early hours of the morning, I could see the coastline coming – it suddenly dawned on me what was happening,' he told ITV News.
In Bayeux cemetery, among nearly 5,000 graves, there were just a handful of surviving Normandy veterans at Friday's remembrance service. Switchboard operator in the Women's Naval Service during World War Two, Marie Scott. / Credit: ITV News
Among them was Marie Scott, who worked as a switchboard operator in the Women's Naval Service.
Aged 17, she was posted to Fort Southwick in Hampshire, where she suddenly found herself sending and receiving messages from soldiers on the beaches.
'I could hear everything. Incessant machine gun fire, bombs dropping,' she said. 'I shall never forget the day they stormed the beaches because it's imprinted on my memory.' D-Day veterans Ken Hay, 99 (second left) and Henry Rice, 99 (far right) lay wreaths at the British Normany Memorial in France. / Credit: PA
Hundreds of onlookers attended the commemorations across the region, which included parachute jumps, remembrance ceremonies, parades and historical re-enactments.
British veterans also attended a service on Thursday in Coleville-Montgomery and visited nearby Sword Beach, where thousands of soldiers landed eight decades ago.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth attended the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France, for a service commemorating American troops. A memorial service was held at Bayeux Cathedral on Thursday. / Credit: PA
On June 6, 1944, known as D-Day, Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy in Nazi-occupied France and breached Hitler's defences in Western Europe by sending the largest ever fleet of ships, troops, planes and vehicles across the English Channel.
A total of 4,414 Allied troops were killed on D-Day itself.
In the ensuing Battle of Normandy, 73,000 Allied forces were killed and 153,000 wounded. An estimated 20,000 French civilians also died.
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