D-Day 75: Prince William at National Memorial Arboretum - with pictures and video
Prince William was the guest of honour – but it was the veterans who were very much at the centre of an emotional day of remembrance in the Midlands today.
The Duke of Cambridge attended a service of commemoration at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire to mark the 75th anniversary of the Normandy landings.
William joined more than 20 D-Day veterans at a public service in Heroes’ Square, before paying his respects at the Normandy Campaign Memorial.
He also met those who served, helping in the successful Allied landings on the heavily fortified Nazi-occupied coastline of northern France on June 6 1944.
Among those also attending was 100-year-old Pixie Jenkins, a former Wren in the Women’s Royal Naval Service.
In 1944, Mrs Jenkins helped drive troops and equipment to Newhaven Docks in East Sussex in the build-up to D-Day and throughout the Normandy landings.
The centenarian, from Aldridge in the West Midlands, was among a handful of veterans who were able to travel to the special service at the Alrewas arboretum.
Reflecting on the anniversary, she said: “I think the men that went over were wonderful and I hope the younger people today realise how fortunate they are to have people like that.
“I think so many youngsters today have forgotten about the men.
“They look at them and think, ‘They’re old men now’ - to them they’re just old men.
“And they’re not, they are wonderful, wonderful men that went over.
“I salute them all.”
The Duke of Cambridge laid a wreath to those who made “the ultimate sacrifice”.
The Duke addressed the ranks of visitors, many of whom bore medals, wore berets, or carried other tokens to show their service to the country.
In a short reading, he delivered the D-Day address originally made by his great-grandfather King George VI in 1944.
He said: “Four years ago our nation and empire stood alone against an overwhelming enemy, with our backs to the wall.
“Now once more a supreme test has to be faced.
“This time the challenge is not to fight to survive, but to fight to win the final victory for the good cause.
“At this historic moment surely not one of us is too busy, too young, or too old to play a part in a nationwide, perchance a world-wide vigil of prayer as the great crusade sets forth.”
As The Last Post signalled the beginning of two-minutes’ silence, veterans bowed their heads and remembered absent friends.
Later, the Duke laid a wreath carrying a personal message, which read: “In memory of all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. We will remember them. William.”
As Prince William stepped forward to place the poppy wreath on the Normandy Landings Memorial, the day’s bright sunshine disappeared behind black clouds, bringing a brief deluge of rain.
It later prompted former Royal Engineer Don Sheppard, who still carries a sliver of shrapnel in his lung from a German shell fired on D-Day, to recall the dreadful conditions crossing the English Channel.
“It was rough,” said the 99-year-old, from Basildon, Essex.
Already a veteran of the North African campaign against Rommel and the tough battles through Sicily, Mr Sheppard’s brigade went in on D-Day in support of the Canadians at Juno Beach.
His unit was then sent forward to Pegasus Bridge, captured by British paratroopers in the first hours of the battle, and ordered to blow it up if a predicted German counter-attack threatened the Normandy beachhead.
The attack did not materialise, but the hard-fighting continued as he and his comrades spent three months fighting crack German troops dug in among the thick hedgerows, known as the bocage.
He said: “One tank could hold up a whole battalion in that country.
“I think that time in the Orne valley was worse than D-Day.
“At Chateau St Come, around near Ranville and Breville, we lost 110 guys there in one night.
“Another time, a platoon from the Black Watch set off and the Germans were in the ditches.
“The platoon got slaughtered.”
Mr Sheppard was among the veterans sharing their stories with the Prince, as was Mrs Jenkins.
Also chatting to the Duke was ex-Royal Navy serviceman Vic Brunt, now in his 90s, who was on a tank landing craft at Gold Beach.
He told the Duke how, on the day, his vessel beached to unload equipment but then ended up stranded under German gunfire - and also hit a mine going in.
Mr Brunt, twice a former mayor of Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, said: “You’re supposed to haul yourself off before the tide changes - but our ship missed the tide.
“So we had to wait for 12 hours. It wasn’t the best place to be.”
Prince William asked what his “abiding memory” of that day had been.
Mr Brunt replied: “I was only 19. I didn’t know fear.
“I remember the shock of the bodies floating in the water and the destruction going on around.
“If you were lucky, you missed the worst of it.”
Meanwhile in London, the Duke of Sussex joined six Normandy landings veterans at the Chelsea Pensioners’ annual Founder’s Day Parade.
Harry praised the efforts of the D-Day veterans being cared for at the Royal Chelsea Hospital, saying he was honoured to be in their presence.
The start of the day was marked in France at 7.25am local time by lone piper Major Trevor Macey-Lillie, of 19th Regiment Royal Artillery (The Scottish Gunners) playing a lament on the remaining Mulberry harbour in the town called Port Winston.
This signalled the minute the invasion began and the moment the first British soldier landed on Gold Beach.
US troops were honoured when American President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania and French President Emmanuel Macron attended the US commemorations at Omaha Beach in Colleville-sur-Mer.
Mr Trump told veterans: “Our debt to you is everlasting.”
