D-Day Heroes Honoured As 98 Forgotten Names Added To Memorial

Some of Britain's last surviving D-Day veterans have returned to Normandy to mark the 82nd anniversary of the Allied landings, as nearly 100 previously overlooked war dead were finally added to the British Normandy Memorial.

The commemorations come as the generation that fought on June 6, 1944 continues to dwindle, with just six British Normandy veterans expected to attend this year's ceremony.

For 100-year-old veteran Kenneth Hay, the rows of names carved into the memorial's stone walls are far more than history.

"To most people coming here they're just a series of names," he said. "To people like myself, they're people, I can see their faces."

Forgotten Heroes Added To Roll Of Honour

This year marks the first anniversary ceremony since researchers uncovered 98 British servicemen whose names had been missing from the memorial's Roll of Honour.

The omissions were largely caused by incomplete wartime records and administrative errors dating back more than eight decades.

Some families were able to provide evidence that relatives had died during the Normandy campaign, while other soldiers had been left off the memorial because they succumbed to wounds after being evacuated back to hospitals in Britain.

The additions bring the memorial's tribute to an even more complete record of the 22,540 British servicemen who lost their lives during the Normandy campaign.

Family's Long Campaign Ends

Among those finally recognised is Cecil Green, who was mortally wounded in Normandy but died later in a British hospital.

Because of where he died, his name was never included when the memorial was first created.

His son John described the emotional moment he learned his father's sacrifice would finally be acknowledged.

"I was really pleased, I cried," he said.

"It's a strange mixture of being glad and happy and sad at the same time."

Standing before the newly engraved stone, John gently touched his father's name as generations of remembrance came full circle.

The Day That Changed The War

D-Day remains the largest seaborne invasion in military history.

On June 6, 1944, British, American and Canadian forces stormed five beaches along the Normandy coast in an operation that marked the beginning of the liberation of Nazi-occupied Western Europe.

The assault followed months of planning and was delayed by 24 hours because of poor weather conditions.

Thousands of troops landed under intense enemy fire in what became one of the most decisive military operations of the Second World War.

A Generation Fades Into History

Commemorations began with French schoolchildren walking across Juno Beach alongside serving military personnel, pipers and descendants of wartime commanders.

UK Defence Secretary John Healey laid a wreath at the British Normandy Memorial overlooking Gold Beach, where thousands of British troops came ashore 82 years ago.

As the number of surviving veterans continues to shrink, organisers say preserving their memories has become more important than ever.

For families of the newly recognised dead, the addition of 98 names serves as a reminder that even after eight decades, the task of honouring those who never came home is not yet complete.

SOURCE

I appreciate that it is a comfort to the families of those who died, but the correction is meaningless as long as there is a disrespect of their service and sacrifice. By that, I mean the people who are allowed to disrupt Remembrance Day ceremonies, to vandalize and to desecrate the memorials and graves of the dead, and the tolerating of the ongoing denigration of people like Sir Winston who served his nation with great distinction.