D-Day ..never forget

Normandy veterans in message to youngsters

- LUCY THORNTON

WAR veterans returning to France for the 80th anniversary of D-Day want parents to tell their children: "Don't forget the heroes who lost their lives."

The few surviving Second World War heroes feel it's their duty to make sure people remember their sacrifices.

The Royal British Legion is taking 23 D-Day veterans back to Normandy to visit the graves of fellow heroes killed on June 6, 1944. That day, 13 countries moved on Normandy in a 5,000-vessel armada with more than 130,000 troops.

Many feared it would be their "last day on earth" and for over 4,400 it was. Another 6,000 allies were injured.

Surviving veterans say that children often ask them: "What is D-Day?"

They explain to them how the biggest invasion in history began the end of the war, with forces landing on five Normandy beaches, codenamed Omaha, Gold, Sword, Juno and Utah.

New data from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission found one in five young Britons do not know the significance of what happened.

Former RAF Sergeant Bernard Morgan, from Crewe, and soldier Jack Mortimer, from Leeds, will never forget.

Codebreaker Sgt Morgan, now 100, was the youngest RAF Sergeant to land on D-Day, aged just 20. Given his basic training in Blackpool by football legend Stanley Matthews, he was so trusted he found out the war in Europe was over two days before most of the world.

He decoded messages including the one which read: "The German war is now over. At Reims last night the Instrument of Surrender was signed..."

Bernard, who landed on Gold Beach, told how the invasion was the first time he'd ever come face to face with death.