I was fortunate enough to be in Normandy in 2004 for the 60th anniversary of the D Day landings. We were staying on a campsite about 15 mins from Pegasus Bridge and on the 6th June itself, as anyone who was in the area will testify, it was virtually impossible to travel anywhere without a pass. We decided not to even attempt to try and break out and instead myself and my brother in law decided to watch the ceremonies on TV in the camp site bar. The bar was pretty busy even at lunchtime and we had a couple of pints whilst savouring the atmosphere. I am from the Staffordshire Moorlands but my brother in law is pure Stoke on Trent with an accent to match which was picked up on by an elderly lady sat next to us. We got chatting and it turned out that she was originally from Stoke and she had been at the ceremony at the Airborne Cemetery in Ranville the previous day. She proceeded to show us two set of medals she had worne on the day - the first to her first husband who had been killed early in the war in a bombing mission over Europe and the other set to her second husband who was in the Paras and landed in Normandy in the early hours of D Day. Sadly he had since died but his ashes were buried at Ranville. We wre pretty amazed at this but not as amazed as we were when she introduced us to her friend sat next to her - an American called Bill Ryan who had been in the first wave of infantry to land at Omaha Beach on D Day. He had been wounded early on and had been evacuated back to England. Later on we got chatting to a Scottish chap who had come ashore at Sword beach in a tank on D Day. That day will always be special and never to be repeated and I still get goose pimples when I recount the experience to people. In 20 years time the opportunity to chat to people who were there will be gone. Does anyone else have any similar stories? Liam
I attended the 60th Anniversary of the Dambusters raid, while on the trip, the tour guide purchased a postcard of the Eder Dam (I think), we all signed the card (40 People) and sent it to Ray Grayston, Flight Engineer on Les Knights Lancaster (AJ-N), who successfully breached the Eder Dam. A year later I had the opportunity to meet Ray, while getting him to sign a few souvenirs I had, I asked him if he received the postcard that was sent the previous year, I can't tell you how shock I was when he said he had and it was framed in his home!!!! There was me asking Ray to sign my stuff and all along my signature was in his home!
