I understand.

We can only tell it as it is.

Your age estimate is about right, maybe some of the NCOs and junior officers were 30 somethings; so, they're all 80 something now and most will be somewhat infirm. You can't go carting these people about for miles and miles, then expect them to walk a fair way to the closed-off beaches etc, arrangements should have been started at least a year ago between governments.

Just shows how thoughtful those in power actually are perhaps and their grasp on history; with regret I note that this may well be the last big do, the math alone suggests the 70th will see very few actual D-Day vets at all.

Paradoxically it can be frightening for these old warriors too; on the 55th Mrs N and I strolled around Pegasus bridge - the new scaled-up one, when a mini-bus of red beret old soldiers arrived and in minutes they were literally mobbed like pop-stars in a huge crush of people which only resolved itself when the gendarmes arrived.

R.