D-Day: Veterans to sail from Portsmouth to France for 80th anniversary
Dozens met at the place where the landings were drawn up back in 1944
Veterans who took part in D-Day will sail from Portsmouth to France today (Tuesday 4th) ahead of the 80th anniversary of the landings.
A Brittany Ferries ship will carry 31 to Caen in Normandy at 8am as part of commemorations on both sides of the Channel.
They will receive a fitting send-off from the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, as vessels are deployed to accompany the ferry out of the harbour and Spitfire and Hurricane aircraft from The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight complete a flypast.
The group will carry with them a commemorative torch from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission which will form the centrepiece of the vigil at Bayeux War Cemetery on Wednesday (June 5th).
A wreath-laying ceremony is also taking place on board the ferry this afternoon to remember those who never made it to shore.
Nigel Wonnacott, spokesperson for Brittany Ferries, said:
"Every year it is our privilege to carry these brave gentlemen, to whom we all owe a debt of gratitude that must never be forgotten.
"We are the guardians of seaborne routes to D Day beaches, from Utah to Sword, and we take that responsibility very seriously. As long as there are veterans who wish to travel to pay their respects to fallen comrades, it will be our great honour to carry them."
Yesterday, about 40 veterans met at Southwick House, near Portsmouth, which was the headquarters where Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight Eisenhower planned the D-Day landings.
A giant map still adorns a wall in the Grade II-listed 19th-century manor house which is now home to the Defence School of Policing and Guarding.
George Chandler, from Burgess Hill in West Sussex, served aboard the British motor torpedo boat MTB 710 as part of a flotilla which provided a guarding escort for the US Army assault on Omaha and Utah beaches.
The 99-year-old said: "Let me assure you, what you read in those silly books that have been written about D-Day are absolute crap, it's a load of old rubbish.
"I was there, how can I forget it? It's a very sad memory because I watched young American Rangers not shot, slaughtered.
"And they were young. I was 19 at the time, these kids were younger than me when I was there and I saw them shot."
For about three months without a break, Mr Chandler's flotilla returned to Newhaven each night for refuelling and rearming and a few hours of sleep before returning across the Channel.
After the Normandy campaign, his boat was deployed to the Mediterranean where it suffered damage before being sunk in April 1945.
Marie Scott, now 97, served with the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) at Fort Southwick as a "switchboard operator" using a machine connected to the landing forces in France.
Her job was to pass messages from the troops on the beaches to the leaders of Operation Overlord, Gen Eisenhower and Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, who were stationed nearby in Southwick House.
Ms Scott - who was was awarded France's highest order of merit, the Legion d'Honneur, in recognition of her contribution to the liberation of the country - described how she could hear the reality of the battle taking place.
She said: "I was a little bemused when I first heard it, then I thought to myself, 'Oh, you know, this is war'.
"You could hear everything, machine gun fire, cannon fire, bombs dropping, men shouting, the general chaos."
The majority of the veterans who attended the gathering at Southwick House were brought by the Royal British Legion, the Spirit of Normandy Trust and the Taxi Charity for Military Veterans.