Princess Anne pays tribute to D-Day veterans at commemorative service in France
The Princess Royal has paid tribute to British D-Day veterans during a commemoration service in France.
Princess Anne and her husband Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence joined veterans and their families at the Royal British Legion service at the Bayeux War Cemetery which contains the graves of over 4,000 personnel.
She took part in an evening vigil and described "the nervous trepidation of those Allied sailors, soldiers and airmen who, 80 years ago today, were charged with storming the Normandy coastline and beginning the campaign to free Western Europe from Nazi tyranny".
Princess Anne also commented on her husband's uncle, Sub-Lieutenant Keith Symons, who at the age of 20 was in command of three landing craft at Gold Beach in the first wave on D-Day.
"Recalling in his memoirs the evening of 5 June he wrote: 'At last it was time for our briefing. Our confidence was dented by predictions that casualties in the first wave were likely to be heavy.
"'Everyone was quite subdued, but it was all very matter-of-fact. They were in those days. After supper we sat around making light conversation and listening to the chaplain playing his violin'."
She also met veterans including Don Jones, 99, who served in the Royal Navy during D-Day, transporting men and equipment to Sword Beach.
Princess Anne told the veteran that meeting people like him was a reason that she carries out her public role.
Mr Jones explained how on D-Day he had to focus on his job as the battle was completely overwhelming.
"I was in the Royal Navy on a tank landing craft, we took tanks and materials across and were dropping them off on Sword Beach," he said after speaking with Princess Anne.
"Then the following two months we were backwards and forwards with materials.
"It was so busy, I couldn't absorb everything that was going on, the noise was so great.
"The bigger ships with the huge guns were firing over us all the time, firing inland to try and clear the enemy positions."
During the service, a minute's silence was observed in remembrance and first-hand accounts from British forces tasked with taking Sword Beach during the Normandy Landings were read aloud.
One hundred-year-old veteran RAF Sergeant Bernard Morgan, who served as a codebreaker, landed on Gold Beach in the early evening of D-Day.
"The thing I remember was seeing all the dead bodies on the beach," he said.
"They arrived in the morning in small landing craft that brought them into seven or eight feet of water, so when they stepped off they went straight down, and with all the equipment they couldn't get up."
Earlier, the Princess Royal hailed the "loyalty, bravery and duty" of the Royal Regina Rifles, as she unveiled a statue representing a rifleman from the Canadian unit which fought at Juno Beach on D-Day.
The ceremony was staged in Place des Canadiens in the picturesque town of Bretteville l’Orgueilleuse, where in the days following the famous 6 June 1944 landings the regiment resisted enemy counterattacks head-on, without giving up any ground.
Join Our Newsletter
