D-DAY ANNIVERSARY: Britain's Prince of Wales paid his respects to 650 veterans of the D-Day landings yesterday who marched in a parade held as part of commemorations of the 60th anniversary of the Normandy invasion.
A crowd of more than 5,000 people turned out to cheer on the veterans, who were headed by 20 regimental standard bearers, at Castle Field, Southsea, Portsmouth, Hants.
As well as taking the salute from the march-past by the veterans, Prince Charles inspected the guard from the Royal Navy training base HMS Collingwood.
The parade was completed by the Band of the Royal Marines who played a beat retreat before the standard was lowered by a group of veterans.
The Prince also met veterans from America, Canada, Australia and France, including members of the French resistance.
Mr Frank Rosier, secretary of the Portsmouth branch of the Normandy Veteran Association, was one of those who landed on Gold beach on June 6th, 1944, as a private in the 2nd Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment.
The 78-year-old from Cowplain, Hants, who received the Legion D'Honneur for his part in the invasion and the war, said: "What has so pleased us in recent days is the interest of the young people.
"It has been overwhelming. One young lad said to us the other day that he was so pleased to speak to us because in a few years he would only be able to read about us in books."
Prince Charles also paid tribute yesterday to Scottish heroes of the Normandy landings.
He chatted with three soldiers from Glasgow who recounted their memories of the Normandy landings and the battle in which many of their comrades fell.
After the meeting Mr Roy Edmundson (79), who served in the King's Own Royal Regiment said: "We lost a lot of our regiment. I was wounded and reported killed in action, but I've now had another 60 years of life."
"We boarded the ship on June 3rd, and sailed June 4th, and the worst part I remember was we had to get over the side of the ship, down a rope ladder and onto a landing craft in a storm. The seas were pretty rough," he added.
Mr Gordon Motherwell (80), who served in the 15th Scottish Infantry Division of the Royal Engineers, said: "It was D-Day plus four by the time we got across and once we were gathered together we were told to go forward and clear minefields. On top of that we had bridges to build which is quite a task I can tell you.
"It was quite a dangerous job, and from the beaches to Berlin we lost quite a number of men.
"The infantry sustained a lot of casualties, we finished up in Lubeck. The fact that we lost so many comrades was very, very harrowing.
"When you go back to the beaches - I have been back three times - it can be quite emotional," added Mr Motherwell, who was 18 when he joined the army and now has two daughters and four grandchildren.
Mr Bronistan Rybarczyk (84) served with the Polish navy under British command during the war and now lives near Balloch and has five children and 12 grandchildren.
"My most vivid memory is the end of the war. It seems just like yesterday," he said.
Meanwhile, hundreds of veterans, their friends and families along with schoolchildren from the UK took part in a spectacular "symbolic crossing" of the channel yesterday on their way to the D-Day commemorations in France.