Peter Smoothy, 97, served in the British Navy and landed on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day.
"The first thing I remember are those poor lads who didn't come back... It's a long time ago, now, nearly 80 years .... And here we are still living," he told AP. "We're thinking about those poor lads who didn't get off the beach that day, their last day, but they're always on our minds."
Welcomed to the sounds of bagpipes at the Pegasus Memorial in the French town of Ranville, British veterans attended a ceremony commemorating a key operation in the first minutes of the Allied invasion of Normandy, when troops had to take control of a strategically crucial bridge.
Bill Gladden, 98, took part in this D-Day British operation and was later shot while defending that bridge. "I landed on D-Day and was injured on the 18th of June ... so I was three years in a hospital," he said.
--GreGen
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