Give us a memorial to our D-Day heroes
Women whose relatives fought on beaches join the campaign
THEIR brothers, husbands and uncles fought on the D-Day beaches – but never lived to see a fitting memorial.
Now the women they left behind have thrown themselves behind the campaign to right that wrong.
They are among hundreds who have supported a charity planning a British Normandy Memorial. The fundraising campaign, backed by the Daily Mail, aims to build a tribute to the 22,500 British troops who fell in the ferocious conflict to liberate France during the summer of 1944.
Cheques have been pouring in – ranging from a fiver to hundreds of pounds.
Many are accompanied by poignant letters dedicating the donations to loved ones whose bravery shall never be forgotten. The Normandy Memorial Trust has already secured £20million from the Government’s penalty fund for rogue bankers, but is trying to raise £9million to complete the project.
The Prince of Wales has become its royal patron, describing the memorial as ‘long overdue’. The US, Canada and France already have memorials to their fallen.
The 50-acre memorial complex will have the names and ages of every British combatant who fell in the Battle of Normandy engraved in polished stone. The first phase of the project will take shape this summer with the unveiling of a central statue during commemorations for the 75th anniversary of D-Day. Many of the letters arriving from well-wishers contain cheques dedicated to uncles, cousins and brothers who gave their lives to secure freedom for Europe.
Robert Wilson, 74, of Cowbridge, Wales, whose father welded tanks and submarines in the war, sent a cheque with a letter saying: ‘I wish I could afford more.’ He told the Mail: ‘I’m just glad to help. My ambition is to walk the beaches where our soldiers gave their lives for us. I even have a dream about being in a bar when servicemen come in and I buy them a drink.’
HERO KILLED BY SNIPER
Glenys Maine wrote in a note with her cheque: ‘I was so glad to hear there is to be a memorial to the brave men who died on D-Day.’ She holds fond memories of her brother Ivor Parr, 24, who made it up the beach on D-Day but was killed by a sniper after he went four miles inland. Mrs Maine, of Pontyclun, Wales, told the Mail: ‘He died on D-Day. There was a German sniper in the church tower in Magny-en-Bessin and my brother was leading his troop along the lane and he got shot.
‘The sniper was then shot and my brother and the German were both buried in the churchyard where they fell. They later took the German away, but the people of Magny wanted to keep my brother there.’ She visited the grave commemorating Private Parr, of the 2nd Battalion South Wales Borderers, on the 50th anniversary of D-Day in 1994. She said: ‘We met a lady who takes care of my brother’s grave. The people of Magny have always been so kind and welcoming.’ Yesterday it was Mrs Maine’s 86th birthday and she said: ‘Talking about this has brought back a lot of memories. My brother was married with a baby son he never saw.’
LIBERATED DEATH CAMP
Janet Smith’s late husband William was among the first wave of troops to land on the hellish Normandy beaches. He beat all the odds to survive the hail of bullets and went on to liberate one of the Nazi camps in Poland, living to 2000 when he died aged 76.
Mrs Smith, 81, said yesterday: ‘Around the 50th anniversary of D-Day, my grandson wanted to take some of his medals to show at school and he asked my husband: “What did you do on DDay?” and the reply was: “Got my feet wet!” She added: ‘Whenever I would say to him, “Perhaps we should go to France on holiday this year?” he would always say: “No, last time I got my feet wet!”’
As a 20-year-old rifleman, the horrors Mr Smith witnessed on DDay and beyond stayed with him forever. When he helped liberate a Nazi death camp he fell in love with a young Polish prisoner and they married in 1946.
She was a witness at the Nuremburg war crimes trials, but died in the 1960s. He married his second wife in 1971 and Mrs Smith, of Ilfracombe, Devon, said: ‘We had a wonderful life together.’
PAVED WAY FOR INVASION
Kathleen Griffin, 95, said her husband Jack, who died in 2016 aged 96, was in the RAF and involved with the gliders that started the Allied invasion. She said: ‘He was a radio operator and the gilders were a very important part of D-Day. I played my own small part, as I was in the national fire service and preparing for attacks on the ports along the south coast.
‘We went to Normandy many times, but Jack and I always used to think, “Well, where’s our memorial?”. So this is a very good project.’ Mrs Griffin, of Andover, Hampshire, travelled the world with her husband, who remained in the RAF and retired in the rank of Squadron Leader.
In the final stages of the war, she lost her brother Derrick Moore, 22. The dispatch rider in the Royal Corps of Signals died when his bike skidded on ice as he was delivering an urgent message from a base in Brussels – six months after D-Day.