WW2 D-Day veterans receive honour 80 years after largest seaborne assault ever

27 February 2024 , 00:01

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Royal Navy D-Day veteran John Roberts (Image: Tim Merry/Express)

Two D-Day veterans are being added to the Normandy Memorial Wall as the 80th anniversary of the assault approaches.

Stan Ford and John Roberts will be presented with their plaques at The D-Day Story museum today. The wall commemorates those who took part in the key Second World War attacks which landed 156,000 Allied troops in France and involved thousands more naval and air force personnel.

Names added to the wall, in Southsea, Hants, are nominated by friends and family before a commissioned etching on an individual brick is added to the memorial. Another 11 veterans from 12 allied countries will be commemorated.

Veteran Stan Ford at his home in Bath (Bath Chronicle)

Mr Ford pictured in 1943 (Bath Chronicle)

Mr Roberts, who reached the rank of Royal Navy rear admiral, served on board HMS Serapis. His convoy arrived at Sword Beach at 7.30am on D-Day and continued to fire on German positions along the coast for 11 days.

Now 99 years-old and from Kent, John said: “I will never forget that day, and I’m proud to know the British people won’t forget either.”

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The Normandy Memorial Wall next to the D-Day Story museum in Southsea, Hampshire (PA)

Troops from the 48th Royal Marines at Saint-Aubin-Sur-Mer on Juno Beach, Normandy, France, during the D-Day landings (Getty Images)

Stan, from Bath, Somerset, survived being blown into the sea aged 19 after his supply ship HMS Fratton was sunk on August 18, killing 38. He once told the Mirror: “The platform I was on detached in the explosion and went over the side with me still in it.”

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “Stan was pulled from the sea and taken to a field hospital on Gold Beach. Injuries he sustained have meant that he has had to walk with leg calipers for the rest of his life.”

Chris Hughes