Veterans have spoken of their “sad memories” as they gathered at the headquarters where D-Day was planned, to mark the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings.
About 40 veterans met at Southwick House, near Portsmouth, which was the headquarters of Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight Eisenhower.
George Chandler, from Burgess Hill, West Sussex, served aboard the British motor torpedo boat MTB 710 as part of a flotilla which provided a guarding escort for the US Army assault on Omaha and Utah beaches.
“I was there, how can I forget it? It’s a very sad memory because I watched young American Rangers not shot, slaughtered.
“And they were young. I was 19 at the time, these kids were younger than me when I was there and I saw them shot.”
After the Normandy campaign, his boat was deployed to the Mediterranean where it suffered damage before being sunk in April 1945.
Marie Scott, now 97, served with the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS) at Fort Southwick as a “switchboard operator” using a machine connected to the landing forces in France.
Ms Scott – who was was awarded France’s highest order of merit, the Legion d’Honneur, in recognition of her contribution to the liberation of the country – described how she could hear the reality of the battle taking place.
“You could hear everything, machine gun fire, cannon fire, bombs dropping, men shouting, the general chaos.”
The majority of the veterans who attended the gathering at Southwick House were brought by the Royal British Legion, the Spirit of Normandy Trust and the Taxi Charity for Military Veterans.
