'An eternal debt Charles honours those who fell as D-day events get under way

At the dying of the day, as dark descended across the beaches of Normandy where the blood of so many thousands was spilt 80 years ago, each of the headstones of the 4,600 men lying in the Bayeux war cemetery was lit up aglow.

- Daniel Boffey, Caroline Davies

King Charles, in his first significant pronouncement since his cancer diagnosis in February, had spoken earlier from Portsmouth's seafront across the channel of the "eternal debt" owed to the 10,000 casualties who had embarked from England's south coast without any sure sense of success in the awesome task of "replacing tyranny with freedom".

Charles, with undisguised emotion, had told of the "liberty won at such terrible cost". But to the discomfort of some of those now well into their late 90s and older, it is not the dead who are at the centre of the D-day commemorations in England and Normandy this year.

A total of 156,115 men landed in Normandy in the early hours of 6 June 1944 but French officials estimate that a mere 200 veterans, mostly Americans but also British and Canadians, among others, have returned to the scene of battle this time. The Royal British Legion brought 20 veterans back to the beaches, compared with 255 in 2019 for the 75th commemorations.

Each of the events in England and northern France has been curated with the knowledge that this is likely to be the final opportunity to hear the testimony of those who were there, and to thank them in person.

"I'm not a hero; it is the ones who did not come back who were the heroes," said Ken Cooke, 98, who as an 18-year-old stepped on to Gold beach at 7.45am. His protestations were politely put to one side.

The breezy but sun-kissed day - the vast allied armada of vessels and the daring airborne troops had been launched in much harsher conditions at the Nazi defences in northern France in 1944 - had started with a direct tribute to the veterans on Southsea common.