Today is the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, occupied France.
D-Day saw the greatest invasion fleet ever raised, landing 156,000 troops and support personnel on the beaches while special forces landed behind enemy lines by air. The landings changed the course of World War II, turning the tide against Nazi Germany and ensuring victory for the Allies.
Seventy years on from this historic date, some of the participants, now in their 80s and 90s, share their poignant memories of D-Day.
Fred Glover in 1944 and at his home in Brighton on April 1, 2014, aged 88. On D-Day Fred was18 years old and a member of the 9th Parachute Battalion, part of a special volunteer force that was assigned to crash land in a glider inside the Merville battery. They landed on the concrete emplacements and engaged the enemy inside while the remainder of the battalion attacked from outside the perimeter wire. Fred was wounded on D-Day and captured. He later escaped from a Parisian hospital aided by the French Resistance. Asked what his most vivid memory of D-Day was he replied: "It was the way we responded when the glider crashed and were immediately confronted by a German patrol. What struck me was that we weren't affected by the crash but immediately sprung into action just like we had been trained to do."Matt Cardy/Getty ImagesFrank Rosier in 1944 and aged 88 at the D-Day Museum in Portsmouth on April 10, 2014. On D-Day Frank, who was just 18, was a private serving in 2nd Battalion, The Gloucestershire Regiment, and landed in the second wave on Gold Beach. His unit, part of 56th Independent Brigade, which was attached to 50th Division for D-Day (and was later attached to 7th Armoured Division) was tasked with taking Bayeux. He served in the intense infantry fighting during the Battle of Normandy, and after nearly three months he was wounded by a mortar near Le Havre, losing his eye. Asked what his most vivid memory of D-Day was he replied: "As a London boy who had survived the Blitz but had never seen a dead body, the carnage on the beach brought me to a complete standstill. It was so horrific that it has stuck with me to this day."Matt Cardy/Getty ImagesVera Hay during WW2 and at the Grange Hotel in Grange-over-Sands in Cumbria on April 29, 2014, aged 92. Vera, who was in the Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps, was one of the first nurses to land at Normandy shortly after D-Day. She was a junior sister and travelled 10 miles to the Chateau de Beaussy where she took care of up to 200 injured soldiers a day. Asked what her most vivid memory of D-Day was she replied: "The needs of the casualties, both our own troops and the German prisoners of war. They all were patients to us. They needed rehydration, rest, morphine to keep them comfortable and we were using the new penicillin."Matt Cardy/Getty ImagesPat Churchill in 1944 and at his home in Witney, Oxfordshire on March 20, 2014, aged 90. On D-Day he was with the 2nd Royal Marines Armoured Support Regiment, which landed on Juno Beach. Asked what his most vivid memory of D-Day was he replied: "Seeing later at low tide all those sunken craft. There must have been hundreds of them and thinking, 'You poor devils'. That is something I will always remember."Matt Cardy/Getty Images89-year-old Gordon Newton enjoys a pint in Bushy on January 16, 2014. On D-Day he was serving in the 9th Parachute Battalion of the 6th Airborne Division and was part of a glider force that was tasked with attacking the Merville battery and destroying the long-range guns that could fire on the invasion beaches. Asked what his most vivid memory of D-Day was he replied: "We had a rough ride across the Channel due to hitting turbulence and the arrester parachute opening. We knew we'd arrived because we came under heavy anti-aircraft fire with shells going straight through the aircraft. One shell hit my flame-thrower which rendered it inoperable."Matt Cardy/Getty ImagesEdwin "Ted" Hunt in 1944 and aged 94 at his home in Lancing. He was a captain in the Royal Engineers commanding 15 of the Rhino ferries on Gold Beach on D-Day. He said: "My most satisfying memory is seeing how the wounded were being so quickly attended to and being returned to England by landing craft. It was hugely reassuring to me and my men that if we did get injured we could be back in England that afternoon."Matt Cardy/Getty ImagesEddie Wallace in 1944 at the D-Day Museum in Portsmouth on April 10, 2014, aged 90. On D-Day, he was serving with 86th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Honourable Artillery Company and landed on D-Day at Juno Beach, in support of the Canadians. Asked what his most vivid memory of D-Day was he replied: "One of the things I do recall when landing is all the dead bodies that were floating around us. One or two of the lads were sick when they saw that."Matt Cardy/Getty Images90-year-old Geoff Pattinson poses for a photograph at his home in London on April 2, 2014. On D-Day, he set out in one of three gliders that were meant to crash land at the Merville battery and the troops were tasked with taking out the long-range guns. However during the flight to France the tow rope snapped and the glider was forced to land in England. He flew again later that day and a few weeks later was wounded in Normandy by a German machine gun. Asked what his most vivid memory of D-Day was he replied: "Most of us thought we had landed in France. When we got out though, lo and behold we were still in England and that was the anti-climax of my life. I couldn't believe we had missed our target."Matt Cardy/Getty ImagesAir Commodore Alastair Mackie in 1944 and at his home in London on 5 December 2013, aged 92 . On D-Day he was flying Dakotas with the RAF's 233 Squadron, given the task of dropping Parachutists of 3rd Parachute. Asked what his most vivid memory of D-Day was he replied: "Taking off at 1am and dropping parachutists in Normandy. The Royal Navy were to our right and I was terrified they wound mistakenly shoot us down."Matt Cardy/Getty ImagesDenzil Cooper in 1944 and at his home in Sutton Coldfield on January 22, 2014, aged 92. On the evening of D-Day Denzil Cooper, who served in the Glider Pilot Regiment, flew as co-pilot of a Horsa glider transporting troops of the Ox and Bucks Light Infantry. Luckily glider pilot losses in the landings were low and Denzil, with his fellow pilots, made their way back to England almost immediately as they would be needed to fly on future airborne operations. Asked what his most vivid memory of D-Day was he replied: "Watching the tail of a glider come off and then watching what was left of it land safely."Matt Cardy/Getty ImagesDavid Tibbs in 1944 and at his home in Oxford on December 3, 2013, aged 94. On D-Day, Medical Officer Captain David Tibbs was serving in the 225th Field Parachute Ambulance, 6th Airborne Division and was tasked to find and treat any paratroopers injured in the drop before moving to the Field Parachute Ambulance's Main Dressing Station which was to be set up in a nearby Chateau. Captain Tibbs was awarded the Military Cross for his work clearing the parachute drop zone while under fire. Asked what his most vivid memory of D-Day was he replied: "It was looking out of the Dakota and seeing a white line that was the surf breaking on the Normandy coast. At that moment we were given the order to jump."Matt Cardy/Getty ImagesEddie Linton, in 1944 and aged 88 at his home in Newport, Wales on March 21 2014. On D-Day, he was a Royal Navy able seaman (AB) on board the River-class frigate HMS Mourne. Asked what his most vivid memory of D-Day was he replied: "Coming on deck for watch early that morning and seeing all those ships. I'd never seen so many ships in all my life. That's when I knew something was going to happen."Matt Cardy/Getty Images
