Co-operation was vital for d-day

SEVENTY-FIVE years ago to the day, thousands of brave young men took a leap into the darkness of fortress Europe, stormed the beaches of Normandy and ushered in the beginning of the end of WWII.

The soldiers, sailors and airmen fought for freedom in a way we can never quite appreciate, although we have enjoyed the fruits of their efforts every day since.

The fascism they fought against was the real thing and fought back with bullets and grenades – not tweets and placards.

Thousands of young people gave their lives for the one we too often take for granted.

They brought more than bravery to the battlefield. They brought international co-operation, a spirit of national pride and survival, and belief that the cause was just.

We owe them much but the Queen captured it all yesterday with a simple “thank you” to the D-Day veterans, her own generation, in Plymouth.

Despite the fact it was so long ago, we cannot become complacent about the values those veterans fought for because the forces of authoritarianism and of isolationist nationalism have never gone away.

They are mustering to the east and west of us, which is why it is important not just to pay lip service to the commemoration but understand and value what the sacrifice was all about and how it was the effort of international allies that swung the war to the side of democracy.

That spirit of co-operation should not be given up lightly.

D-Day veteran Eric Chardin touched on that yesterday at the commemorations.

He said: “Brexit worries me. It would be an awful shame if what we’ve gone to so much trouble to do, to collect the European big nations together, to break it all up now would be a crying shame.”