King Charles and Queen Camilla have joined world leaders in France to commemorate D-Day heroes on the 80th anniversary of the Normandy Landings.
Both the King and Queen looked visibly moved as the memories of D-Day veterans were read out at the commemorative event.
Rishi Sunak, Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron are among the world leaders in France to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
The event is King Charles's first overseas public engagement since he was diagnosed with cancer in February.
Both the King and Queen looked visibly moved as the memories of D-Day veterans were read out at the commemorative event.
PA
The King issued a powerful tribute to the D-Day heroes during a speech in France.
The monarch said: "Eighty years ago, on D-Day, 6th June 1944, our Nation and those which stood alongside us faced what my grandfather, King George VI, described as 'The Supreme Test'.
"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.
"On the beaches of Normandy, in the seas beyond and in the skies overhead, our Armed Forces carried out their duty with a humbling sense of resolve and determination: qualities so characteristic of that remarkable wartime generation. Very many of them never came home.
The event is King Charles's first overseas public engagement since he was diagnosed with cancer in February.
Getty
"They lost their lives on the D-Day landing grounds or in the many battles that followed. It is with the most profound sense of gratitude that we remember them, and all those who served at that critical time. We recall the lesson that comes to us, again and again, across the decades: free Nations must stand together to oppose tyranny. As the years pass, the veterans of the Normandy campaign become ever-fewer in number.
"Over the past forty years I have had the great privilege of attending seven D-Day commemorations in Normandy and meeting so many distinguished veterans. Indeed, I shall never forget the haunting sights and sounds of thousands of be-medalled figures proudly marching past into a French sunset on these beaches. Our ability to learn from their stories at first hand diminishes. But our obligation to remember them, what they stood for and what they achieved for us all can never diminish.
"That is why I am so proud that we have a permanent National Memorial in Normandy, by which to remember the more than twenty-two thousand service personnel in British units who gave their lives during the D-Day landings and the Battle of Normandy.
King Charles and Queen Camilla have joined world leaders in France to commemorate D-Day heroes on the 80th anniversary of the Normandy Landings.
Getty
"It was built at the suggestion of a veteran, George Batts. He is sadly no longer with us, but lived to see it built and explained on the day it was opened why it means so much: 'We left a lot of mates behind and now I know they will never be forgotten.' So, for the first time today, we can come together at Gold Beach, the objective of the fiftieth Infantry Division, to honour those who fought on this ground eighty years ago, and who continued for three months of the war’s fiercest fighting to secure Normandy."
The Prince of Wales has also travelled to France but the Princess of Wales will not join the senior royals overseas to mark the anniversary.
Prince William touched on his wife's absence at the D-Day commemorative event in Portsmouth on Wednesday.
He said regarding Princess Catherine: "She had love to be here today."
