I had to bite back the tears as I strolled alongside the white limestone headstones at the Bayeux war cemetery in Normandy.
It was the ages that did it: 22, 24, 25, 23, 27, 30, 19. I couldn’t believe it when I saw one aged just 17. D-Day veteran Joe Mines, 99, from Hornchurch, East London, summed it up when he saw these graves on Wednesday for the first time. He fell silent and, staring at the giant field of headstones receding into the distance, said sadly: “There’s a lot!”
Front line codebreaker Bernard Morgan, 100, from Crewe was the youngest RAF Sergeant to land in Normandy on D-Day at just 20 years old.
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Grandchild of Bernard Morgan, 100, with a copy of the Daily MirrorHe still grieves for his three wireless operators who were killed but buried at nearby Reyes Cemetery. At Bayeux he said: "Seeing these graves reminds me how I'm so lucky to have escaped alive." Even more so as he became a great-grandfather again the day he travelled across the English Channel this week back to Normandy. Every grave at Bayeux has a little bit of England in front of it, red roses and grass fittingly cut to a uniformed height.
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One inscription for 19-year-old D Chalmers from the Royal Army Service Corps says: “Forget him not this lad so young his life he gave that we might live." The extraordinary care at the Commonwealth War Graves site is touching, exemplified by two adjoining graves, bonded to each other.
Alec Penstone at the Colleville-Montgomery spirit of Normandy Trust event to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day (Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)They are the final resting place of two air gunners from the Royal Air Force and their pilot, aged 21. Sergeant J Hanna, an air gunner was killed on June 7th, along with A M Henderson and R C H Wakeley, a wireless operator.
Nearby tearful couple, Marilyn Howe, and husband Andrew, in their 70s, were looking at her uncle’s grave. George Archer from the Isle of Wight was just 18 when he was made a corporal in charge of his unit, which had been decimated after the landings.
Marilyn Howe, 72, and her husband Andrew found her uncle’s grave at Bayeux cemetery (Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)His grave and five others alongside meant the unit were united in death as it was in life. “He was called up in March but gone by August. It took me back, the sheer numbers here,” Marilyn said, “it’s shocking to think all of these boys didn’t come home.”
On Wednesday, British D-Day heroes paid tribute to the dead at Bayeux war cemetery. During the service, the world was urged to thank these "bunch of 18 to 20-year-olds" who gave us freedom. The Bayeux cemetery is a stark reminder of the horrifying scale of casualties. There are 4,647 tombs, 4,647 heroes, 4,647 reasons to remember.
George Archer from the Isle of Wight was aged just 18 when he was made a corporal when he was killed (Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)Their efforts on D-Day and beyond, as the three-month Operation Overlord stemmed the tide of Nazi triumphs and saw the beginning of the liberation of Western Europe. The service of commemoration was hosted by The Royal British Legion with TV presenter Sophie Raworth reading an extract from ‘D-Day’ by Stephen Ambrose.
“Operation Overlord, the invasion of German-occupied France in June 1944 was staggering in its scope. In one night and day, 175,000 fighting men and their equipment, including 50,000 vehicles of all types…were transported across 60 to 100 miles of open water and landed on a hostile shore against intense opposition…
Lucy Thornton visited the Bayeux war cemetery in Normandy just before the 80th anniversary of D-Day (Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)"It all came down to a bunch of 18 to 28-year-olds. They were magnificently trained and equipped but only a few of them had ever been in combat…they had never heard a shot fired in anger.
“They were citizen soldiers, not professionals…But when the test came, when freedom had to be fought for or abandoned, they fought. They were soldiers of democracy. They were the men of D-Day, and to them we owe our freedom.”
The Reverend Canon Michael Parker, Chaplain General of HM Land Forces, said "we continue to pray for an end to all wars". An account from a medical officer called J H Patterson, from No 4 Commando who landed on Sword Beach was also read out.
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Oscar Coleman-Celis, aged eight, whose great-grandfather Norman landed on Gold beach on D-Day (Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)‘Troops man your boats’ came over the loudhailer. My hands grew numb and my teeth were chattering with cold and fright. “It was H-Hour and the first infantry were going in. Private Hindmarch was beside me - and Sapper Mullen. He died of his wounds later that day. And Lieutenant Kennedy, looking grim but enjoying his rum. Just as well as he was never seen again after leaving the boat," it read.
British and Commonwealth casualties killed, wounded or listed as missing on D-Day totalled 4,300 (Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)An account from naval chaplain The Reverend Walter Crooks, from Sword Beach said: “I remember the beach so clearly. I wasn’t scared. I just saw it as a challenge to do all the good I could, to get alongside the wounded and the dying. It meant a great deal to them just to have a hand to hold. Most of them had faith but some of them were very worried about what would become of their families.”
D-Day on June 6, 1944 has been described by the MoD as the “the largest amphibious assault ever launched” More than 75,000 British joined an Allied invasion force involving 14 countries and more than 130,000 troops. Another 7,900 British troops were landed by air.
Polish D-Day veteran Eugeniusz Nead during the commemorations for the 80th Anniversary of the D-Day landings at the Bayeux War Cemetery (Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)They were supported by more than 7,000 ships and smaller vessels off the coast, including the famous HMS Belfast, and 11,000 aircraft. In total, British and Commonwealth casualties who were killed, wounded, or listed as missing on D-Day numbered 4,300.
The invasion established a crucial second front in the liberation of Europe from Nazi occupation, ultimately leading to victory for Allied Forces in 1945. But it was just the beginning as over the next three months, battle raged in the towns, fields, and hedgerows of northern France.
The MoD said by the time ‘Operation Overlord’ concluded at the end of August, more than 2million allied personnel had played their part, 72,000 of whom would never return home. On Thursday, to mark the exact moment the beach invasion began in 1944, a military piper will land on the beaches of Arromanches-les-Bains in a Royal Marines landing craft. The piper will begin playing a lament in tribute to those who led the beach landings.
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