Cornwall remembers our D-Day heroes – here’s everything you need to know | News

We’ve complied the stories of those still alive who played their part – and also a list of events taking place today

In Cornwall, those who witnessed the Normandy landings – or the build-up to it – have shared their stories on the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

Nearly 133,000 Allied troops landed on D-Day. 4,414 Allied troops were killed and over 5,000 wounded,

A wide range of tributes and ceremonies take place across the UK today, including the lighting of beacons, cathedrals and church bells ringing at 6.30pm.

Two D-Day veterans from the South West are starring in a campaign for Blind Veterans UK, the national charity for visually impaired ex-service men and women.

Richard Aldred, 99, from Callington in Cornwall, and Peggy Harding, 101, from Torquay in Devon, appear on big digital screens in central London and Portsmouth between May 30 and June 6 to commemorate the the 80th anniversary of Operation Overlord.

Richard, then 19, was a tank driver and served with the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards, which were sent to Normandy after D-Day as reinforcements. His unit landed on Sword Beach through one of the Mulberry ports and replaced others decimated by German forces.

Richard recalled the cramped and unsanitary conditions inside the tanks and the horrors of war, including suffering animals and the stench of death.

He says, “You have to get along with your friends because the whole tank smells of frightened human beings, gasoline, hydraulic oil, and gunpowder.”

Richard is incredibly humble when asked about his role on D-Day. He says: “I’m just an ordinary person, but I’m very proud of the fact that I was in the Royal Armored Corps.”

Richard, who turns 100 a month after D-Day, started being supported by Blind Veterans UK in January this year after losing his sight to macular degeneration.

Veteran Peggy Harding, 101, from Torquay, joined the Royal Women’s Naval Service in January 1943. Peggy served as a linguist, translating intercepted radio messages. In her role, she would work alone in a direction finding tower between Dover and Folkstone during the hours of darkness, writing down pages of code she intercepted from German forces. Peggy was on duty on the evening of June 5, 1944.

She said: “It was very obvious that something was going to happen. You could say.

At the time we thought we were doing something important, but of course no one knew about it until the mid-to-late 70s. My parents died before they knew what we had done.”

Peggy was diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration and started receiving support from Blind Veterans UK in 2018.

Today in Falmouth there is a memorial wreath laying at Kimberley Park at 11am.

There will be a D-Day commemorative service organized by the Ex-Servicemen’s Federation at Saltash Passage and a beacon will be lit at the Royal Citadel in Plymouth Hoe at 9.15pm. At the same time, at Saltash Waterside, locals are invited to commemorate D-Day by remembering all those who took part in or were affected by the events of eight decades ago and lighting a stage of peace.

Local libraries will also host D-Day displays from June 6 to 15, and after June 6, Plymouth University of the Arts student Stuart Morrissey will deliver a memorial sculpture and bench dedicated to the people of the US. 29th Infantry Division which trained in the area, up to Mount Edgcumbe House & Country Park – where service troops were stationed and prepared for the historic moment in 1944 – where it will find a permanent home.

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