“Lest We Forget” – D-day’s 76th anniversary in France is marked by the Unveiling of a British memorial to the Normandy Landings

British and American veterans are set to leave Portsmouth and travel to Normandy for the 76th anniversary of the D-Day landings, the Second World War veterans have journeyed from across the UK, and the US ahead of a series of memorial events to be held this week.

It is understood that some of the former servicemen are returning to the beaches of northern France for the first time in 70 years.

It’s been 76 years today since that fateful June 6 on France’s Normandy beaches, when allied troops in 1944 turned the course of the Second World War and went on to defeat fascism in Europe in one of the most remarkable feats in military history.

D-day, the largest seaborne invasion in history, saw as many as 19,000 troops on both sides die during the landings. The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, June 6, 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War, Codenamed Operation Neptune, it was often referred to as D-Day.

Memorial

The project had been delayed by protests from local residents who claimed it would destroy the view of the sea and the car park and coach loads of tourists would damage the environment.