"It will be our great honour": Brittany Ferries to transport largest group of D-Day veterans for D-Day 80

Brittany Ferries will be travelling from Portsmouth to Ouistreham (Caen) aboard Mont St Michel tomorrow (June 4) and a total of 31 veterans and their carers will be on board. The ferry will be leaving at 8am and Royal Navy vessels in Portsmouth Harbour will sail past in formation, sounding their sirens. The Royal British Legion will be escorting a number of the D-Day veterans to Normandy. Over the course of the D-Day 80 commemorations, Brittany Ferries will carry 60 veterans. This includes a group of seven from the United States who travelled on Saturday, June 1 from Portsmouth to Cherbourg. This is the closest port to Utah and Omaha beaches, where around 2,400 troops lost their lives on June 6, 1944.

Veterans travelling today will be accompanied by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and a torch of liberty. The torch is heading to France for a commemoration ceremony where it will be passed from a veteran to a young person, signalling the passing of D Day guardianship from old to young. The torch will go on to form the centrepiece of a vigil at Bayeux War Cemetery on June 5.

Nigel Wonnacott, spokesperson for Brittany Ferries, said: “Every year it is our privilege to carry these brave gentlemen, to whom we all owe a debt of gratitude that must never be forgotten.

“We are the guardians of seaborne routes to D Day beaches, from Utah to Sword, and we take that responsibility very seriously. As long as there are veterans who wish to travel to pay their respects to fallen comrades, it will be our great honour to carry them.”

For more information about the D-Day 80 events, click here.