80th anniversary of D-day commemorative service set for Kings Chapel

The Royal British Legion (RBL) Gibraltar Branch, will be commemorating the 80th anniversary of the D Day landings and the Battle of Normandy with a special service at the Kings Chapel at noon on June 6.

The event will be open to all veterans as well as families and descendants of Normandy veterans.

The D-Day landings of 6 June 1944 (codenamed Operation Neptune) was the largest seaborne invasion in history.

Along with the associated airborne operations, it marked the beginning of the liberation of France and western Europe.

In the early hours of D-Day, an assault force of more than 130,000 troops, in a 500 vessel armada, came ashore on five beaches across a 50-mile stretch of Normandy coast.

By the end of D-Day there had been 10,000 allied casualties. Yet this was only the beginning.

The ensuing Battle of Normandy (Operation Overlord) was to last into August and cost tens of thousands of lives as it defeated and repulsed the occupying German forces eastwards.
The way for the liberation of much of north west Europe.

The current Chairman of the local branch, Lt Col (Rtd) Francis Brancato commenting on the Commemorations.

“We owe it to all those who took part in this historic and crucial engagement of WW2, including a number of Gibraltarians, to remember their bravery and sacrifice which paved the way for the liberation of much of north west Europe,” he said.