British paratroopers have been met by French customs officers as they landed in Normandy for the eightieth anniversary of D-Day.
Footage reveals the troops touchdown in a French area carrying their heavy luggage, solely to be compelled to indicate their passports and paperwork to ready officers.
Swarms of different paras will be seen touchdown after leaping out of a aircraft to commemorate the Normandy landings whereas a queue varieties in entrance of French customs officers.
It’s a markedly completely different reception to that acquired by their forebears, who dropped into northern France forward of the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944.
Some 320 British, Belgian and US paratroopers took half within the soar, descending right into a historic D-Day drop zone to recreate the occasions of 1944.
British paratroopers have been met by French customs officers as they landed in Normandy for the eightieth anniversary of D-Day
Swarms of different paras will be seen touchdown after leaping out of a aircraft to commemorate the Normandy landings whereas a queue varieties in entrance of French customs officers
It’s a markedly completely different reception to that acquired by their forebears, who dropped into northern France forward of the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944
Some 320 British, Belgian and US paratroopers took half within the soar, descending right into a historic D-Day drop zone to recreate the occasions of 1944
The 250 British paratroopers took off from RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, earlier than leaping into the drop zone close to Sannerville to commemorate the airborne invasion 80 years in the past.
Some 30 US and 40 Belgian troops additionally took half within the soar, though US troops weren’t checked as they have been already in France.
At 1pm, the paratroopers launched themselves out of an Airbus A400M, touching down roughly eight minutes later in fields close to Sannerville – designated drop zone Ok on June 6 1944.
The British Military’s 16 Air Assault Brigade despatched 250 paratroopers to the occasion, amongst whom was Sergeant Danny Mawson who wore a smock worn by D-Day paratrooper Color Sergeant Tommy Alderson.
The eighth Battalion Parachute Regiment had jumped behind enemy traces into fields simply west of Sannerville within the early hours of June 6, 1944.
Eighty years later, the paratroopers had a a lot hotter welcome. The Royal British Legion Band of Wales, from Llanelli, performed Vera Lynn’s We’ll Meet Once more because the drop started, with parachutists filling the air.
The 250 British paratroopers took off from RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, earlier than leaping into the drop zone close to Sannerville to commemorate the airborne invasion 80 years in the past
At 1pm, the paratroopers launched themselves out of an Airbus A400M, touching down roughly eight minutes later in fields close to Sannerville – designated drop zone Ok on June 6 1944
The Royal British Legion Band of Wales, from Llanelli, performed Vera Lynn’s We’ll Meet Once more because the drop started
The wind prompted some to drop proper over the seated dignitaries and one needed to shout on the watching crowds as he got here down amongst them.
After touchdown and gathering up their parachutes, they made their strategy to a border level arrange within the nook of a farmers area to indicate their passports.
Brigadier Mark Berry, the paras commander, informed the Solar: ‘It’s one thing we haven’t skilled earlier than.
‘However given the Royal welcome we’ve had from each different function, it looks like a really small value to pay for coming to France.’
Brigadier Berry paid tribute to the 23,000 airborne troops from Britain, America, the Commonwealth and Canada who parachuted in behind enemy traces within the early hours of June 6, 1944, as a part of Operation Tonga.
They landed after midnight, simply hours earlier than the seaside landings began, with orders to destroy a gun battery and safe management of 4 key bridges, two which they captured and two they destroyed.
A fifth of the troops in Operation Tonga have been wounded and 821 misplaced their lives that day.
