Rishi Sunak will momentarily pause his election campaigning, and King Charles will take a break from his recovery from cancer to join veterans in commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
This significant event will be observed on the south coast of England and in Normandy over two days.
The commemorations will start on Wednesday at 11 am on Southsea Common, Portsmouth’s seafront, and will extend to the French beaches where Allied troops began the liberation of Europe in 1944.
The King, who has made few public appearances since his cancer diagnosis in February, and the Prime Minister will be accompanied by hundreds of local schoolchildren for a cultural event broadcast live on BBC One.
Dame Helen Mirren will narrate the ceremony, and Sunak, who is taking a break from his campaign for the July 4 general election, will deliver a reading.
King Charles has also participated in a BBC film to be aired on June 5, showing him and the Queen meeting veterans and reading from his grandfather’s wartime diary.
“My grandfather was so determined to go.
He got very frustrated because they wouldn’t let him go until several days later,” Charles recounted to the veterans, including Jim Miller, 100, who landed on Juno Beach with the 11th Hussars regiment.
Reading from George VI’s June 6 diary, Charles said: “This was my grandfather’s diary.
That was his D-day entry.
‘The news was given out at 8am that the invasion of the continent of Europe had started last night.
The airborne troops had made successful landings in the night and had captured their objectives.’”
Initially planned was a flypast by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, which was canceled following the tragic Spitfire crash that killed RAF Squadron Leader Mark Long.
Veterans’ accounts of the “longest day” will be displayed on large screens on Southsea Common.
Musical performances from military bands, including the Royal Marines Band Service and the Corps of Drums, will be followed by a flypast by the Red Arrows, the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team.
The Red Arrows will perform in precision formation, trailing their signature red, white, and blue smoke.
They will be accompanied by an aircraft from the RAF Typhoon Display Team.
HMS St Albans will be a focal point in Portsmouth’s commemorations before sailing across the Channel on June 5, mirroring the soldiers’ journey eight decades ago.
The frigate will anchor off the beaches of Normandy as the ceremonies continue in France.
On Wednesday afternoon, the focus will shift to Normandy, where hundreds of Allied Armed Forces personnel will parachute into a D-Day “drop zone” to honor the airborne invasion’s success.
On Tuesday, 22 veterans departed from Portsmouth on a ferry, retracing the path they took as part of history’s largest amphibious invasion force.
An additional 21 D-Day veterans will attend a Royal British Legion service at the National Memorial Arboretum, while others travel independently to France.
With surviving veterans now in their late 90s or older, fewer can travel to France. In 2019, the Royal British Legion assisted 255 veterans in commemorating the 75th anniversary.
On Tuesday, 98-year-old Harry Birdsall from Wakefield and 99-year-old Alec Penstone laid a wreath at sea, saluting the Last Post.
Arnie Salter, 98, from Bedworth, Warwickshire, shared his mixed emotions: “I’ve got a lot of mixed feelings, I’m glad to go, it brings back memories but I’m also sad; we lost a hell of a lot of good men.”
The Royal British Legion will host a commemoration service at the Bayeux War Cemetery on Wednesday afternoon, followed by a joint UK-France service of thanksgiving at Bayeux Cathedral.
As night falls on the eve of D-Day, the Bayeux cemetery will feature a light show broadcast live on BBC One.
On Thursday, June 6, commemorations will begin at 7:25 am, the exact moment the beach invasion started in 1944.
A military piper will land on the beaches of Arromanches-les-Bains in a Royal Marines landing craft, playing a lament in tribute to those who led the landings.
Later that morning, the official British commemoration will occur at the British Normandy Memorial at Ver-sur-Mer, where King Charles will join Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron for the first major event at the venue, opened in 2021.
The Prime Minister will give a short speech and lead a “heroes welcome” for the veterans.
Sir Tom Jones will lead musical performances, and Prince William will attend the national commemorative event in Portsmouth and events hosted by Canada and France in Normandy.
An international event on Omaha Beach will be attended by US President Joe Biden and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. No Russian representative has been invited.
Fourteen nations are recognized for their contributions to the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, the UK, and the US. Fifteen nations, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Germany, will be represented at the national commemorative events in Portsmouth and Normandy.
Of the 156,115 Allied troops who landed in Normandy by sea and air on June 6, 4,300 British and Canadians were wounded, killed, or went missing in action, along with 6,000 Americans.
