Prince William set to have key role alongside King Charles and Queen Camilla at D-Day anniversary event
Prince William set to have key role alongside King Charles and Queen Camilla at D-Day anniversary event
PA/Getty
Prince William will have a prominent role alongside King Charles and Queen Camilla at a commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the D-Day Landings.
The three will attend a commemorative event in Portsmouth today to honour the monumental historical event which took place on June 6, 1944.
Tomorrow, Charles and Camilla will visit Ver-sur-Mer, France to attend the The Ministry of Defence and the Royal British Legion’s commemorative event at the British Normandy Memorial.
Meanwhile, Prince William will visit the Juno Beach Centre, Courseulles-sur-Me, to take part in the Canadian commemorative ceremony. The Prince of Wales will speak to both Canadian D-Day and Second World War veterans, whilst also speaking with current personnel and cadets.
Prince William set to have key role alongside King Charles and Queen Camilla at D-Day anniversary eventPA/GettyFollowing this, William will travel to Omaha Beach, Saint Laurent sur Mer, the site where over 4,000 allies lost their lives 80 years ago. He will join more than 25 Heads of States and veterans to honour the fallen soldiers.
Other Royal Family members will take part in memorial events up and down the country from June 5 to 6.
Anne, The Princess Royal, accompanied by Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, will unveil a statue in Normandy of a Second World War Canadian Royal Regina Rifleman today. They will then meet with veterans and French representatives at a Royal British Legion event.
Following this, Anne, who is President of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), will attend a service of remembrance at Bayeux Cathedral, once again accompanied by Sir Laurence. She will then give a speech honouring those who lost their lives at a service later that evening.
Prince William be taking part in various commemorative events across the two days
GettyElsewhere, The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh will join veterans and their families at a Royal British Legion’s Service of Remembrance on June 6.
Meanwhile, The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester will head to the Royal Albert Hall tomorrow evening for an event called D-Day 80: Remembering the Normandy Landings, which will combine music and different storytelling forms to honour those that lost their lives.
Yesterday, four D-Day veterans, aged between 99 and 100, were invited to Buckingham Palace to share their memories of the historic event with the King and Queen.
John Dennett, Arthur Oborne, Bernard Morgan and Jim Miller, brought mementos and keepsakes from the time to show the royal couple.
D-Day veterans are celebrating 80 years since the historic operationsPAROYAL LATEST:
Troops coming ashore during training exercises for the Allied D-Day invasion in 1943GettyItems ranged from a pair of football boots, still in immaculate condition, carried by codebreaker Morgan, to bloodstained dog tags Oborne wore when he was shot through the chest just says after the Normandy Landings.
King Charles in return shared with the four a diary extract written by his grandfather, King George VI, documenting the events.
On June 6, 1944, over 150,000 soldiers from the UK, the US, Canada and France attacked German forces on five different beaches in northern France.
The unprecedented allied campaign to liberate Western Europe and defeat the Nazis was the largest seaborne invasion in history.
It claimed the lives of 4,415 Allied personnel, including 1,449 British soldiers.
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