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13 Oct 23. Register with the Royal British Legion to attend D-Day 80 as a veteran. Veterans of the Normandy campaign are invited to register if they would like to attend D-Day 80.
Veterans of the Normandy Landings gathered for the opening of the British Normandy Memorial in 2021.
Veterans of the Normandy campaign are invited to register with the Royal British Legion if they would like to attend commemorations of the 80th anniversary of D-Day in June 2024.
Normandy veterans will be at the heart of official events in the UK and France to mark the 80th anniversary of the landings.
Members of the Armed Forces will lead veterans and guests in commemorations to pay respects to those who died during the Normandy Landings, as well as veterans of the campaign who are no longer with us.
Events will take place in both Normandy and the UK to ensure veterans are able to visit Normandy or take part in a commemoration closer to home.
Normandy veterans should register with the Royal British Legion to express their interest in attending the commemorations.
Relatives and carers of Normandy veterans are encouraged to help veterans to register their interest.
Normandy veterans can register with the Royal British Legion on their website to express their interest in attending D-Day 80 events.
Find out more about D-Day 80 at the British Normandy Memorial.
The memorial will host a major commemorative event to mark the 80th anniversary of the Normandy Landings in June 2024. (Source: https://www.gov.uk/)
13 Oct 23. The British Normandy Memorial at Ver-sur-Mer, Normandy.
The British Normandy Memorial will host a major British commemorative event to mark the 80th anniversary of the Normandy Landings on 6 June 2024.
Members of the public can register with the British Normandy Memorial to receive updates about their D-Day 80 events.
The 80th anniversary of the Normandy Landings will be the first time this new memorial has been at the heart of major anniversary commemorations.
The British Normandy Memorial is the only memorial in Normandy listing the names of the 22,442 people who died under British command on D-Day and during the Battle of Normandy.
The memorial was inaugurated by President of France Emmanuel Macron and then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Theresa May on 6 June 2019 during events to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day.
The UK Government and generous donors collaborated to fund the memorial, which was officially opened on 6 June 2021.
Register with the British Normandy Memorial to find out more about their D-Day 80 events. (Source: https://www.gov.uk/)
13 Oct 23. Find out more about CWGC Bayeux War Cemetery.
Bayeux War Cemetery will host veterans of the Normandy campaign during commemorations of the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
Bayeux War Cemetery is the final resting place of more than 4,000 servicemen of the Normandy campaign.
Bayeux War Cemetery is the largest Commonwealth War Graves Commission war cemetery of the Second World War in France. It contains the graves of men originally buried on the battlefields and those who died in military hospitals in Bayeux.
The cemetery was started during the war by the 48th Graves Concentration Unit – a unit of the British Army responsible for recovering, identifying and burying the dead.
The cemetery was completed in 1952 and is now the final resting place of more than 4,100 Commonwealth servicemen, of whom nearly 340 remain unidentified. Also buried there are some 500 servicemen of other nations.
Opposite the cemetery stands the Bayeux Memorial, which bears the names of more than 1,800 men and women of the Commonwealth land forces who fell during Operation Overlord and have no known grave.
They died during the landings, the intense fighting in Normandy, and in the advance to the River Seine in August 1944. Both the cemetery and the memorial were designed by Philip Hepworth.
The Latin inscription on the memorial recalls the Norman invasion of Britain in 1066 and reads: “We, once conquered by William, have now set free the Conqueror’s native land.”
Both the cemetery and memorial are cared for by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, whose mission is to ensure those who died in service or as a result of conflict are commemorated so that they, and the human cost of war, are remembered for ever.
Veterans of D-Day will gather at the cemetery in June 2024 to pay respects to their fallen comrades who now lie at rest there. The cemetery is open daily and all are welcome.
The positions of the 18 CWGC war cemeteries in Normandy give an indication of the progress of the fighting following D-Day and its human cost.
There are more than 22,000 Commonwealth war dead buried in these cemeteries, but many more will be found in churchyards and village cemeteries throughout the region.
(Source: https://www.gov.uk/)
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SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity, has been providing lifelong support to our Forces and their families since 1885. In 2020, our teams of volunteers and employees helped more than 79,000 people in need, the currently serving (both regulars and reserves), veterans from the Second World War and those who have served in more recent conflicts, as well as their families. SSAFA understands that behind every uniform is a person. And we are here for that person – any time they need us, in any way they need us, for as long as they need us.
https://www.ssafa.org.uk/about-us
https://www.ssafa.org.uk/support-us
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