Hero's welcome for D-Day veterans

NORMANDY veterans from East Yorkshire returning to France one final time are being given a hero's welcome.

Grateful French people have been stopping the veterans in the street, eager to shake hands with and kiss the brave men who landed on the beaches 65 years ago today.

The Mail – in the region to record the visit – watched as two ladies in their 50s, recognising the veterans' trademark berets and blazers, stopped to greet a group as they walked into their hotel in Deauville, near Caen, ahead of today's commemoration events.

Ken Watson, vice chairman of the Hull and East Yorkshire branch of the Normandy Veterans' Association (NVA), said: "It is nice to be back in Normandy, but it is for a special purpose. We are here to honour our comrades who did not make it back to England."

Mr Watson, 86, of Beverley Road, Hull, served with 12 Ordnance (Beach Attachment) and was among the second wave to storm Sword Beach on D-Day – June 6, 1944

He added: "Visiting Bayeux's war cemetery, where many of the lads are buried, is going to be hard for us."

Another veteran Bill Feller, 83, of Cottingham, said the group felt humbled by the response of the passionate French people who welcomed them with open arms.

Mr Feller said: "Everybody is waving us, stopping us in the streets and welcoming us."

About 20 members of the Hull and East Yorkshire branch of the NVA and their relatives sailed from Hull to Zeebrugge, in Belgium, on Wednesday, before making their way to France.

They are staying at a hotel in Deauville, near Le Havre, partly paid for by Mail readers who responded to a plea for donations.

The group were attending ceremonies today to pay homage to their fallen comrades.

The Mail has joined the group, most of them in their late 80s, for what looks set to be their final visit back to the 50-mile stretch of coastline where more than 60,000 British troops landed to fight Nazi forces.

At 10am today, veterans were attending a service in Bayeux, organised by the Royal British Legion and the NVA.

Wreaths were being placed and individual members of the group will lay small crosses on the graves of friends who never returned home to their loved ones.

Bayeux was the first French town to be liberated by the invading Allied coalition and it is here where the majority of the British war dead are buried, their graves immaculately kept by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the grateful French people.

At 5.30pm, a ceremony was being held in the seaside town of Arromanches.

A host of world leaders were expected to attend ceremonies being held across Normandy this weekend, including Prime Minister Gordon Brown and US President Barack Obama.

For full coverage of the commemorations in words, pictures and video reports, see Monday's Mail and visit www.thisishull.co.uk