Devon remembers our D-Day heroes - here's everything you need to know
We've complied the stories from those still alive who played their part - and also a list of events taking place today
Last updated 6th Jun 2024
Across Devon, those who witnessed the Normandy Landings - or preparations for it - have been sharing their stories on the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
Almost 133,000 troops from the Allied Forces landed on D-Day. 4,414 Allied troops were killed and over 5,000 were wounded.
Across the UK, a wide range of tributes and ceremonies are taking place today, including the lighting of beacons, with cathedrals and churches ringing their bells at 6.30pm.
Veteran Peggy Harding, aged 101 from Torquay, enlisted into the Women’s Royal Navy Service in January 1943. Peggy served as a linguist, translating intercepted radio messages. In her role she would work alone in a direction finding tower between Dover and Folkstone during the hours of darkness writing down pages of code that she intercepted from the German forces. Peggy was on watch on the evening of 5 June 1944.
She said: “It was very obvious something was going to happen. You could tell.
At the time we thought we were doing something important, but of course nobody knew about this until the mid to late 70s. My parents died before knowing what I’d been doing.”
Peggy was diagnosed with age related macular degeneration and began to receive support from Blind Veterans UK in 2018.
Today in Brixham a commemoration parade led by Scottish Pipers and Drums is taking place at 10:30am. An Embarkation service will take place in commemoration of the D-Day Landings of 1944 on Beacon Quay, Torquay at 11am.Beacon Lighting is taking place at Corbyn Head, Daddyhole Plain and at Shoalstone Pool at 9.15pm as part of the UK wide tribute national mark of D-Day 80.
Plymouth’s very own former WREN Suzanne Sparrow remains one of the last witnesses to the city’s role in the greatest amphibious landing the world has ever seen - and is among those preparing to honour all the heroes of Operation Neptune 80 years on. Suzanne was just 17 when she joined the WRENS in 1942 and still only 19 when the invasion force set sail two years later on June 6, 1944. She was one of the first women to become a small boats coxswain and trained at the city's naval base HMS Drake, going on to work at the dockyard's landing craft base at Saltash Passage beneath Plymouth's Tamar Bridge where, in the run-up to D-Day she witnessed the massing of vessels and thousands of troops. The operation was top secret but Suzanne, now almost 100, was privy to the movements of the American forces, estimated at 36,000, as they loaded up their landing craft in the days before they departed for Omaha and Utah beaches.
She said: '’I was told not to speak about what I had seen...it really was the most astounding operation that could ever have happened. People had no idea of the scale of what was going on.
'’There was an air of excitement almost because nobody quite knew what was brewing. You had to realise how tense the atmosphere was for them when they finally realised what had happened.'’
Exeter Airport’s vital role in supporting the allied D-Day invasion of Europe 80 years ago is being highlighted in a public exhibition at the airport today, with car parking available for just £2 a day in Car Park 4.
During World War II, RAF Exeter was a Class 1 Fighter Station with several fighter squadrons being based there from 1940 to 1945. It played an important role locally, particularly during the Battle of Britain and the Exeter Blitz of Spring 1942.
Chris Wiseman and Jerry Bird will talk about the history of the RAF at Exeter and is also the creator of the RAF Exeter and Exeter Airport Memories websites. Jerry Bird has a long working and professional association with Exeter Airport, writing and researching the history of RAF Exeter.
There will be a D-Day Memorial Service organised by the Federation of Ex-Services at Saltash Passage and a beacon will be lit at the Royal Citadel at Plymouth Hoe at 9.15pm. At the same time, at Saltash Waterside, locals are invited to commemorate D-Day by remembering all those who took part or were affected by the events of eight decades ago and shining a light in a display of peace.
There will also be D-Day displays in local libraries from June 6 to 15 and, following June 6, final year Crafts and Material Practices student Stuart Morrissey from Arts University Plymouth will hand over a memorial sculpture and bench, dedicated to the men of US 29th Infantry Division who trained in the area, to Mount Edgcumbe House & Country Park - where service troops were stationed and prepared for the historical moment in 1944 – where this will find a permanent home.
Newton Abbot will be lighting beacons on June 6 to commemorate the D-Day 80th anniversary. The main ceremony will be conducted by Mayor Cllr Alex Hall (currently Deputy Mayor) who has invited residents to say why, in image or words, they love to call the town home. The entry that strikes the greatest chord with him will entitle the creator to join him on the evening and become part of the town’s history.
Recently the 80th anniversary of Exercise Tiger was remembered at Slapton Sands in Devon
The full history of the area's role in preparing for the DDAY landings can be found here
Agatha Christie’s holiday home Greenway, near Brixham, will have a military vehicle and re-enactment display. Greenway, the former holiday home of Agatha Christie and now cared for by the National Trust, has a special connection to the Second World War. During that period, Greenway became home to evacuees and was later requisitioned by the US Coast Guard.
When the house was returned to Agatha Christie and her family on Christmas Day 1945, they discovered that a frieze had been painted in the library by a US Coast Guard in the run up to the D-Day landings. The frieze remains visible today, its artwork depicting the US Coast Guard’s journeys, although partially unfinished.
"The Second World War left it's mark on Greenway," said Laura Murray, Collections and House Manager. "Visitors will be able to see first-hand the lasting impact it had, and hear stories of what life at Greenway would have been like in 1944."