'I was a boy' D-day veterans honour comrades as king urges free nations to stand together

It was not the profound silence of the moment of reflection, broken only by gentle birdsong, or even the spectacular sweeping flypast from the Red Arrows that left deep red, blue and white trails hanging in the sky, that most stirred the thousand people honouring the events of 80 years ago among the white French Massangis stone of the British Normandy memorial.

- Daniel Boffey

It was instead the words of Arthur Oborne, 100, that brought people to their feet in a spontaneous show of gratitude for the burdens borne and lives prematurely ended by what the king described as "the vast allied effort" launched on 6 June 1944.

Standing at the centre of the memorial site, opened in 2021 near the village of Ver-sur-Mer and overlooking Gold beach, Oborne, working hard to keep his voice strong and clear, recalled being shot in the lung by a sniper.

He had been saved by his friend "Gummy" Gummerson, who strapped him up and got him back to a field hospital. Gummy was killed the next day along with 26 others in the 49th division of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment, 6th Battalion. "I wish I could tell him that I have never taken his sacrifice for granted and will always remember him and our friends," Oborne, from Portishead, Somerset, told the crowd. "So Gummy, thank you my old friend."

The king and queen were among those who rose to their feet as others dabbed the tears from their eyes. Oborne was one of fewer than 30 British veterans of D-day able to travel to Normandy at the centre of the commemorations.