Gretna man left disheartened after vandals destroyed D-day plaques
10 cemmorative signs were placed throughout the town.
Last updated 3rd Jun 2024
This week is the 80th anniversary of the D-day landing, but the event has been marred in Gretna thanks to vandals.
10 plaques were erected around the town to cemmorate the day, however, by the next day, several of them had been torn down from their stands and damaged or stolen.
Andrew Lynch from Gretna Community Council put them up himself.
He explains what it was like discovering the mess: "I found one actually on the street itself. You could see it had been ripped down from the lampost. When I came back from work, I found another four were missing - we had about 10 altogether. It was very disheartening and very disrespectful at the end of the day."
Lynch told Greatest Hits Radio in an interview that the act itself was shocking and upsetting as the plaques were installed to remember a historical event.
"It's very disrespectful for things that have happened. Hopefully next time that we have something big, they won't be destroyed. At the end of the day, this is for the men and women who fought in World War II and done the D-day landings - this was to remember them.
"We got these for the community so they could remember as well and visitors that come to the place."