{"id":14329,"date":"2024-06-04T17:00:28","date_gmt":"2024-06-04T14:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=14329"},"modified":"2024-06-04T17:00:28","modified_gmt":"2024-06-04T14:00:28","slug":"uk-d-day-veteran-says-on-80th-anniversary-we-were-making-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=14329","title":{"rendered":"UK D-Day veteran says on 80th anniversary: , \u2018We were making history\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Royal Navy veteran Fred Ayton was told he was \u201cmaking history\u201d when he set off across the English Channel 80 years ago on the eve of D-Day, a momentous point in the fight against Nazi Germany for someone who was \u201conly a kid\u201d.Ayton was an 18-year-old able seaman torpedoman on HMS Sweetbriar, a corvette protecting Allied vessels from enemy submarines on the journey to the\u00a0Normandy beaches\u00a0on June 6, 1944.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was still only a kid really,\u201d the 98-year-old said, but he knew he was doing the right thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I must say it made a man of me,\u201d he told Reuters.<\/p>\n

Ayton\u00a0is one of 21 veterans travelling to Normandy with the Royal British Legion (RBL) to attend the charity\u2019s events in Bayeux and Ver-sur-Mer on June 5 and 6.<\/p>\n

Around\u00a0200 veterans\u00a0will be\u00a0in France, including about 50 from\u00a0Britain\u00a0who will be present at RBL events in Normandy.<\/p>\n

King Charles, Queen Camilla and Prince William will travel to Normandy after they attend\u00a0Britain\u2019s national commemoration in Portsmouth, on the English south coast, on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

U.S. President Biden, who will be on\u00a0a\u00a0state visit to France, will join the ceremonies alongside French President Emmanuel Macron. The leaders of\u00a0Britain, Canada and Germany will also attend.<\/p>\n

More than 150,000 service personnel from the United States,\u00a0Britain, Canada and other Allied nations took part in the\u00a0landings on D-Day, the start of an invasion which led to the liberation of France and victory on the Western Front.<\/p>\n

Ayton recalled how everybody had to leave their stations on the ship to hear the captain relay a message from the Lord of the Admiralty, saying they \u201cwould be making history\u201d by taking part in the biggest ever seabourne invasion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very well planned and the enemy had no idea that we were going to do it,\u201d he said in his home in north London, where a model of his ship is displayed.<\/p>\n

Ayton said he was attending the event for his late son. \u201cHe was the one who was so proud of me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fred Ayton, a Royal Navy veteran, was an 18-year-old able seaman torpedoman on HMS Sweetbriar during the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944. He was told he was “making history” by taking part in the biggest ever seabourne invasion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14330,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1521,7297,859,492,195,461,913,180,4477,1469,5460,12287,7586,6117,3343,988,499,5105,576,658,1386,3940,4525,450,422,1394,4442,714,4843,3360,9837,4440,12288,4441,124,7967,1182,3523,494,544,4560,4100,6305,3145],"class_list":["post-14329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","tag-1521","tag-anniversary","tag-beaches","tag-biden","tag-britain","tag-british","tag-canada","tag-charity","tag-charles","tag-coast","tag-commemoration","tag-d-day","tag-english-channel","tag-event","tag-events","tag-fight","tag-france","tag-french-president","tag-germany","tag-history","tag-king-charles","tag-leaders","tag-liberation","tag-london","tag-macron","tag-man","tag-message","tag-navy","tag-president","tag-president-biden","tag-president-emmanuel-macron","tag-prince-william","tag-royal-navy-veteran","tag-service","tag-ship","tag-state","tag-travel","tag-u-s-president","tag-uk","tag-united-states","tag-victory","tag-visit","tag-who","tag-william"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\nUK D-Day veteran says on 80th anniversary: , \u2018We were making history\u2019<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"D-Day. 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