Be part of Armed Forces Month
With the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings and National Armed Forces Day taking place this June we are calling on our supporters to honour our brave D-Day veterans, along with all Service men and women who have made extraordinary sacrifices for our country.
On 6 June, 1944, the Allied Forces mounted the largest seaborne mission in history which resulted in the liberation of France and ultimately changed the course of the Second World War in favour of victory for the Allies.
Almost 133,000 troops from the Allied Forces landed on D-Day. 4,414 Allied troops were killed and over 5,000 were wounded, these men paid the ultimate sacrifice.
Harry
Harry, 102, and from Merseyside, was in the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry and is the last survivor of over 28,000 men who landed at Sword Beach.
Harry’s battalion was part of the first wave of the assault, tasked with destroying a gun battery that was targeting ships in the channel. He says:
“You never forget. You can even see some of the faces of your comrades who didn’t make it. There were 17,000 that gave their lives. They are the people to remember.”
Harry lost his sight due to macular degeneration later in life and recently began to receive our support. He says:
“I was having difficulty seeing my watch and the charity sent me a new watch which I can see and which also talks to me. They are also going to bring me something so I can read the newspaper because I do miss the paper and it’ll be marvellous to read it again.”
John
John, 103, and from Peebles, joined the Royal Artillery in 1939 at the age of 18 and was with them for nine months before the Second World War broke out. He was then transferred to the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.
During the war, John was a Desert Rat and was stationed in the Middle East and Italy before taking part in the D-Day Landings. He says:
“We boarded the landing crafts and sailed the English Channel overnight and then laid anchor off the beaches in the morning of D-Day.
“Some of us had to lay to for some time before we could get ashore which wasn’t very comfortable when we were under fire from the Luftwaffe. But it was an epic sight to see so many ships in one area that one had the feeling you could almost walk from one ship to another.”
John lost his sight due to macular degeneration and he has a pseudophakia (false lens) in both eyes.
In 2019, John joined a group of veterans on an organised trip to Normandy to mark 75 years since the D-Day Landings. During the trip a lot of memories that had laid dormant for many years were rekindled. A few months later, the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic led John to write his memoirs with our support. He says:
“Everything the charity does to help veterans makes a huge difference to our quality of life. When writing my memoirs, the charity provided a volunteer to write up my handwritten notes, wide-lined paper, a magnifier and lighting.”
Joe
98 year old Joe from Blackpool enlisted into the Royal Navy in August 1943. He served on HMS Ryde which was used to protect one of the Mulberry harbours.
The harbours were set up to facilitate the rapid offloading of cargo onto the beaches during D-Day, and to transport American troops to the beaches. He says:
“I’ve read since, there were thousands of tonnes of food and ammunition and hundreds and hundreds of men who all used Mulberry harbours to get ashore. That’s one thing that made D-Day a success.”
Recounting his memories of the American troops dropped off on Omaha Beach. Joe says:
“Those men were the bravest of the brave. They went ashore with a rifle against a machine gun nest. One of them said to me, it’s absolute slaughter out there. As soon as the doors open, the machine guns had gone right away- hardly any of them got out of the landing craft alive."
Joe lost his sight due to macular degeneration in both eyes and began receiving support from Blind Veterans UK in 2019. He says:
“The charity has given me a stick which has been a good help, I would be lost outside without it. I also have a reading machine which is brilliant.”
Peggy
Peggy, 101, and from Torquay, enlisted into the Women’s Royal Navy Service in January 1943 and served as a linguist, translating intercepted radio messages.
In her role she would work alone in a direction finding tower between Dover and Folkstone during the hours of darkness writing down pages of code that she intercepted from the German forces. Peggy was on watch on the evening of 5 June 1944. She says:
“It was very obvious something was going to happen. You could tell.
“At the time we thought we were doing something important, but of course nobody knew about this until the mid to late 70s. My parents died before knowing what I’d been doing.”
Peggy realised she was losing her sight around eight years ago. She was diagnosed with age related macular degeneration and began to receive our support in 2018. She says:
“Blind Veterans UK give you so many gadgets to help. I have a talking watch and a talking bedside clock as well as a machine that reads my letters. I do a regular telephone quiz and I go to coffee mornings. They really do everything.”
How you can get involved
We have many activities planned to ensure our veterans can be part of commemorations and celebrations taking place throughout June.
If you, or your organisation, are looking for ways you can mark this poignant month, while also raising money to provide life-changing support to our veterans, there are lots of ways in which you can do this.
We have interviewed 16 of our veterans about their D-Day experiences to commemorate the 80th anniversary.
Their full stories will be shared in a special commemorative booklet. If you would like a copy of our D-Day commemorative magazine, please sign up for email updates before 6 June 2024.
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