Normandy braced for D-Day celebrations

Under a light but persistent June drizzle, the beaches, green fields and flag-bedecked village squares of Normandy were braced…

Under a light but persistent June drizzle, the beaches, green fields and flag-bedecked village squares of Normandy were braced yesterday for an invasion of up to a million people for this weekend's 60th D-Day anniversary celebrations.

With 17 heads of state and government, including Mr George Bush, Mr Vladimir Putin, Mr Tony Blair, Mr Gerhard Schröder, Mr Jacques Chirac and Queen Elizabeth II starting to arrive in the region from today, French authorities have mounted what one interior ministry official yesterday called the country's biggest ever peace-time security operation.

A total of 19,000 soldiers, gendarmes, police and firemen would be on duty throughout the weekend, said Mr Didier Cultiaux, senior state representative in Lower Normandy.

A restricted zone 20 miles deep has been drawn along 60 miles of coastline; anyone planning on entering through one of its five access points will need a badge.

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"It's getting a bit ridiculous," complained Marcelle (56), standing outside her neat brick house near the US military cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, the site of a big American commemorative service tomorrow morning. "We've got special passes just to get out of our front door."

The cliffs above Arromanches, where the main international ceremony takes place tomorrow afternoon, have been sealed since Tuesday. Some 460 officers from France's specialist VIP protection force will be on hand before and during the service, along with the personal security services of the most important guests.

"We've had no warning of any specific threat," the interior ministry official said. "But it is quite exceptional to have so many heads of state and government in one place at one time. I wouldn't say Normandy is in a state of siege, but certainly in a state of supreme vigilance."

Two unmanned aircraft and an Awacs surveillance plane will overfly the area throughout the weekend, while a unit at Caen-Carpiquet airport is equipped with a dozen Mirage fighter jets, Crotale ground-to-air missiles and 30 helicopters carrying army sharpshooters.

"Any unidentified aircraft entering the surveillance zone during the ceremonies will be classified as one of four categories - friendly, doubtful, suspect or destroy," Col Marc Timbert told French radio. "If need be, they can be intercepted within a maximum of five minutes."

This morning, a flotilla - more modest than the 5,000 ships that gathered in a holding area south of the Isle of Wight 60 years ago - will set sail from Portsmouth and Southampton. Consisting of warships, ferries, a cruise ship and other vessels, it will carry hundreds of D-Day veterans to the commemorations in France.

The veterans will be on board the Brittany Ferries ship MV Normandie and the MV Van Gough, a cruise ship specially commissioned by the Royal British Legion for the D-Day cruise.

The flotilla will stop for a wreath-laying ceremony as it approaches France, before a Lancaster bomber releases a million poppies.

Veterans have been making their way to Normandy from Portsmouth throughout the week, and at the ferry terminal yesterday second World War jeeps and motorcycles mingled with caravans and people carriers, many carrying men wearing berets, blazers and medals.

Among those heading towards Normandy yesterday was Willy van der Voet (44), a Belgian accountant, who was driving three friends through St-Aubin-sur-Mer in his 1938 US army jeep."We're going to drink a lot of beer and eat a lot of mussels. But you have to honour these guys. If it wasn't for them, what would our life be like now?"