D-Day ceremonies begin in France
The first of the ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings have begun in Caen in northern France.
As thousands of veterans gather for the weekend’s events, a copy of the Liberty Bell which marks the friendship between the US and France was unveiled.
Ex-servicemen in their 80s were among those to cross the Channel for a weekend of events to commemorate the Allied invasion on June 6 1944.
On Sunday the Queen and Tony Blair will join other world leaders in Arromanches for an international tribute.
Some 17,000 French military personnel and police are being deployed to ensure the safety of 17 heads of state and heads of government as well as thousands of veterans over the weekend.
The French government has detailed plans in place to deal with anything from nuclear or chemical incidents to a mass outbreak of food poisoning or deaths among the veterans in predicted hot weather.
The security plan, codenamed Vigipirate, has only previously been used during the 1991 Gulf War, during terrorist attacks on Paris in 1995 and in the wake of 11 September.
What has been described as “the largest emergency centre in the world” has been set up in regional capital Caen, with firefighters, doctors and medical staff from across France at the ready.
Commercial air traffic into the region has been cancelled and an army unit is monitoring all flights, with fighter jets and helicopters on standby to protect the air exclusion zone.
A maritime exclusion zone has also been established in the Channel around Omaha beach, near Arromanches.
An area including 160 towns and villages along the coast will be sealed to road traffic on Sunday, with the streets of Arromanches to be completely cleared of cars ahead of Sunday’s event.
The beach at Arromanches, code-named Gold on the Allies’ secret D-Day maps, was taken by British forces in the operation.
The Mulberry Harbour, nicknamed Port Winston, was constructed there after D-Day to speed up the landing of men and supplies.
Veterans who returned to the Normandy town recalled how grateful they were to have survived the invasion.
Stanley Burrows, 82, from Belfast, was a Bren gunner with the Second Battalion Royal Ulster Rifles.
He said the operation had been complicated because he had to carry a 56lb bicycle onto the shore - which he was forced to abandon under fire.
“Our boat was hit by a shell,” he said. “There was shelling, fire from the snipers as we made our way up the beach and I’m alive today to tell the story.”
Farm buildings and gardens on the way to the coast welcomed the returning veterans with British Union flags hanging alongside American, Canadian and French flags.
On the roads, convoys of Jeeps and other Army vehicles from World War II evoked 1940s France as they rolled towards the coast past fields lined with poppies.
Vic Hayman from Nottingham, a sergeant in the Royal Signals, said he was looking forward to his role as a standard bearer in Bayeux on Sunday.
He said: “I came here for the 40th and 50th anniversaries and I’m here again to celebrate.”
Richard Robertson, a fellow veteran from Nottingham who served in the Royal Artillery, said: “I’m here because it’s important that everyone remembers, not just us but the younger generations.”
Thousands of veterans will attend events at Pegasus Bridge and Ranville on Saturday to pay tribute to comrades who died in the operation.
More than 150,000 troops took part in the initial Second Front landings, of whom 10,000 were casualties.
D-DAY MEMORIAL EVENTS
0845 Portsmouth: Veterans’ ferries and warships set off
0930 Channel: Fly-past over flotilla
1045 Colleville-Montgomery: Normandy Veterans Association tribute to Field Marshal Montgomery near Sword Beach. Prince Charles at parade and march-past
1230 Pegasus Bridge: Prince of Wales unveils replica glider at memorial museum and honours British Airborne units
1345 Ranville dropzone: Parachute drop of British and Canadian paratroopers
1500 Battle of Britain memorial: Poppy-drop over ships off Ouistreham
1530 Caen: Portsmouth warships welcomed to harbour
1600 Caen: British Garden of Remembrance opening, Prince Charles and chiefs of staff attending
2100 Pegasus Bridge: Veterans’ march-past celebrating exact landing time