Veterans gather in Normandy to mark the 81st anniversary of the D-Day landings. Loading audio...

Along the coastline near the five D-Day landing beaches, tens of thousands attended the commemorations to the ever-dwindling number of veterans.

The June 6 1944, D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied France used the largest-ever armada of ships, troops, planes and vehicles to breach Hitler’s defences in western Europe.

A chaplain whose grandfather fought in the Second World War commemorated the 81st anniversary of D-Day by warning “we forget it at our peril”.

The Rev Simon d’Albertanson, a Royal Navy chaplain and the chaplain for the Spirit of Normandy Trust, led a memorial service at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer, describing D-Day as a “seminal moment in history”.

He reminded

See Full Page