Page 202 - Bugle Autumn 2014

Ron Cooper from Australia finds the headstone of his uncle George who was killed whilst serving in 9DLI
in 1944
Normandy remembered by the Durham’s
D Day 6 June 1944, was when Allied Forces launched a combined naval, air and land assault on Nazi occupied France – codenamed “Operation Overlord”. The Allied landings were on five Normandy
liberate Normandy after D-Day.
The Plans had always been to attend
the Commemorative Events of the Bayeux Commemorative Services but instead of the Sword Beach International Event, the
their names on them.
So it was at 0600 hours on Thursday 5
June 14 that the majority of the Durham’s party boarded the coach booked through Galina International Battlefield Tours for the
Bayeux CWGC Cemetery
beaches – Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. 5 Div’s; 151 Bde (DLI Brigade) landed on Gold Beach, and amongst the 44 members from Durham who travelled
to Normandy on a Pilgrimage to follow
the route taken by the 6th, 8th and 9th battalions of The Durham Light Infantry were veterans who had landed on Gold Beach in 1944 and were in the party to give first hand accounts of their battles
of June 1944 and the fight for the towns and villages that followed. Dick Atkinson, Charles Eagles, Peter Downey and George Iceton remembered with clarity their battles to liberate Normandy. The pilgrimage
was to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of D-Day and also to unveil and dedicate two memorials in Normandy to those who had served in the Durham’s in WW2 and those who had lost their lives in the battles to
HM The Queen attends the Commemorative Service at Bayeux
Durham’s would attend
their own battlefield
tour from Gold Beach,
following the routes of
151 Durham Bde from
6 June 44 onwards.
This included a guided
tour of the battles
through Verrieres,
Lingeves, Audrieu,
St-Pierre and Tilly sur
Seulles. The guides were Clive Bowery and DLI historian Harry Moses with confirmation and first hand accounts and recollections from our four veterans who had fought
in all these battles. The other reasons for attending this particular pilgrimage 70 years after the events of 1944 was to dedicate the two memorials to those who served and to those who died and had no memorial with
HRH The Duke of Edinburgh enjoys meeting the veterans
Dover ferry, collecting other members en route including the ferry port itself. The York Pullman coach driver throughout was Neil Revill and he got the party onto the
P & O ferry on time for the 1600 hrs crossing. Arriving in Calais was seamless as was the
journey to the town of Lisieux where the party arrived at 2300 hrs. Meals had been consumed on the ferry and en route, so
it was straight to bed in preparation for a 0500 hrs reveille and a 0630 hrs departure from the Hotel de la Place to Bayeux via Caen.
The Commemorative Services in Bayeux were professionally organised with a little
The pilgrimage was to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of D-Day and also to unveil and dedicate two memorials
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THE RIFLES