They did not flinch – and we salute them for that

They did not want to be treated as heroes, and insisted they were merely doing their duty. The greatest amphibious operation the world has seen involved 156,000 seaborne and airborne troops from Britain, the United States and Canada landing in Normandy on 6 June 1944, marking the start of Operation Overlord. In an echo of his grandfather George VI’s stirring message to Britain and the empire 80 years ago, the King told an emotion-charged event at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer: “How fortunate we were, and the entire free world, that a generation of men and women in the United Kingdom and other Allied nations did not flinch when the moment came to face that test.” He added: “We recall the lesson that comes to us again and again across the decades – free nations must stand together to oppose tyranny.” That is as true today as it was in 1944 – and the absence of an uninvited Russia from the D-Day events was a sobering reminder there is again war on European soil. Some of the 23 British veterans who went to Normandy this year returned for the first time since 1944 to pay their respects to “the lads” who did not make it home. Mr Bateman’s great-granddaughters, Annabel and Imogen, told the memorial event in Portsmouth: “We want to thank our great-grandfather and all the veterans of D-Day and the Normandy landings… Without them, we would not have the freedom we enjoy today.” We must never forget them.