D-Day commemorations have begun in the United Kingdom. Some veterans begin the journey to Normandy this Tuesday, June 4, aboard a ferry from Portsmouth.
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With our special correspondent in Portsmouth, Emeline Vin
On board the ferry Mont Saint Michel, around thirty D-Day veterans begin crossing the Channel to the sound of bagpipes. Some of them, war medals on their chests, sat on the deck of the boat. Among the rest of the passengers, many crowd together to try to catch a glimpse of the stars of this Channel crossing.
The ship is adorned with British, French, American and Canadian flags for the occasion and at its stern, we can see a commemorative flame, lit by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and which will be brought this Wednesday to the Bayeux cemetery in Normandy.
In all, around sixty veterans will have made the trip this week. It’s a long week ahead of all these veterans. Most are almost a hundred years old, some more. But for most of them, it is an honor and a duty to go to Normandy for the international commemorations.
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“It’s a pilgrimage for some”
Before the departure of the ferry, gathered in Portsmouth, at the headquarters of the Navy during the Second World War, the veterans of D-Day are moved to find themselves at the starting point of the Landings. This is the case of Norrie Bartlett, a former sailor: “ It brings back a lot of memories. Portsmouth is where I signed up. My first foray into the war was chasing a German submarine in the English Channel. »
Faced with a huge map of the Anglo-Norman coasts used in the preparation for D-Day, George Chandler, 99, remembers his arrival on Omaha Beach: “ There were hundreds of planes flying overhead, a noise like you’ve never heard. It was terrible to see all these young people being, not shot at, but massacred. »
The veterans find themselves under the watchful and proud eye of Colonel Jeremy Green: “ All the “great men” – the Eisenhowers, the de Gaulles, the Churchills – they are long dead. But the guys who went to the beaches at 17, 18, 19, come back here, in their hundredth year, where the decision that changed their lives was made. It’s a pilgrimage for some. »
Veterans who are not going to Normandy will participate in a ceremony in the presence of King Charles this Wednesday, June 5.
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