D-Day veterans will gather in Portsmouth to meet modern-day Royal Marines personnel and local schoolchildren to pass on their wisdom to a new generation.

The News, Portsmouth

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00:00 Yeah, this is the start of a week of events for the veterans. Obviously we sail out of

00:06 Portsmouth tomorrow and the main focus is going to be the 6th of June at Bair Shumair

00:12 where the King and various other dignitaries are going to meet our brave veterans.

00:17 Wow, that's amazing. And today Portsmouth school children have enjoyed being a part

00:21 of living history. Can you tell me why events like this are so important?

00:26 It's very important. Unfortunately, as much as I'd love these guys to stay around forever,

00:32 they will dwindle and the numbers will become zero in not that many years. So it's all about

00:39 their legacy, what they did.

00:41 I think it's number one importance in my calendar. It is really number one. I've just met Charlie

00:48 and his sister and to be told that Charlie, eventually he wants to join the army and their

01:00 family, their parents, they won't discourage him at all. They'll be doing just what I want

01:08 is to not even encourage him to decide and do the gory parts of war. That's not what

01:17 I'm about. It's to get them involved, to know what happened, to appreciate the sacrifice

01:25 of the 22,000 people who lost their lives in Normandy in the Normandy campaign. 22,440.

01:35 To appreciate that, take that on board, remember it, don't forget it and to help in the future

01:42 to avoid catastrophes like that.

01:50 And I said that you are approaching, you're approaching at the time in your life, I was

01:56 talking to the 15, 16 year olds, you're approaching the time in your life where you're going to

02:01 be involved with politics. You can't avoid it. You can't avoid it. As you become of a

02:07 certain age, you are eligible to vote. So think, think on the past when you make your

02:15 decisions. And become involved, become involved because you're standing and sitting on the

02:22 sideline and letting other people think and do what they think and you keep quiet. That's

02:29 not the way things are done.

02:34 We're here in Portsmouth today as the final part of the UK Roadshow of the Torch of Commemoration

02:40 and the Commonwealth War Graves campaign, lighting their legacy. And the purpose of

02:46 this has been to engage a new generation, the next generation, with the stories of those

02:51 who fought, who they were, what they did and especially to commemorate those who died during

02:56 the Second World War and especially during D-Day and the landings in Normandy. So the

03:01 Torch has been on the UK-wide Roadshow over the course of the last three weeks and today

03:05 has concluded its UK side of the campaign here with the veterans at the D-Day story.

03:11 Tomorrow morning it will travel with them to Normandy where the flame will be used to

03:15 light each of the 22,000 war graves in Normandy to remember all of those who died in the campaign

03:20 there in 1944.

03:23 On the 6th of June 1944, Prime Minister Winston Churchill made the following statement to

03:29 Parliament. "I have also to announce to the House that during the night and the early

03:34 hours of this morning, the first of a series of landings in force upon the European continent

03:39 have taken place. I cannot, of course, commit myself to any particular details. Reports

03:46 are coming in in rapid succession. So far, the commanders who are engaged report that

03:52 everything is proceeding according to plan. And what a plan! This vast operation is undoubtedly

03:59 the most complicated and difficult that has ever occurred. It involves tides, wind, waves,

04:07 visibility from the air and the sea, and the combined employment of land, air and sea forces

04:14 in the highest degree of intimacy and in contact with conditions which could not and cannot

04:21 be fully foreseen. The battle that has now begun will grow constantly in scale and intensity

04:27 for several weeks to come, and I shall not attempt to speculate upon its course. This

04:33 I may say, however, complete unity prevails through the Allied armies. There is a brotherhood

04:39 in arms between us and our friends."

04:44 On the morning of Tuesday 6th June 1944, Allied forces began landing on the northern coast

04:51 of Nazi-occupied Europe. The first airborne troops arrived by parachute and glider just

04:56 minutes after midnight. By dawn, a vast seaborne assault force was fighting its way ashore

05:03 on five landing beaches, codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. As Churchill had described,

05:12 the Normandy landings were the largest, most complex and ambitious operation of their type

05:17 ever attempted, and were a turning point in the Second World War.

05:21 For more information visit www.fema.gov

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