King Charles insisted he would attend D-Day commemoration events in Britain and Normandy and is understood to have made it a personal goal to attend.
The monarch, 75, will be present at both the UK’s national commemoration event in Portsmouth today and commemorations in northern France tomorrow, his first major international event since beginning cancer treatment.
Charles was said to have been determined to commemorate the 80th anniversary, as it will be the last such event that D-Day veterans will be able to witness.
A good recovery has contributed to this, which has allowed his public duties to be brought forward “approximately a month”, according to a source. The times.
Charles and Queen Camilla will join the MoD and Royal British Legion commemoration event at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer.
King Charles shakes hands with D-Day veteran Jim Miller at Buckingham Palace yesterday
Charles and Queen Camilla pose for a photograph alongside D-Day veterans Arthur Oborne, Jim Miller, Bernard Morgan and John Dennett.
Meanwhile, William will attend the Canadian ceremony at the Juno Beach Center in Courseulles-sur-Mer hosted by the Canadian government, alongside World War II veterans and Canadian Armed Forces personnel.
The Prince of Wales will then attend the international memorial ceremony on Omaha Beach, Saint Laurent sur Mer, on June 6 alongside 25 heads of state and veterans from around the world.
The Princess of Wales is not expected to travel to France.
Charles and Camilla welcomed four D-Day veterans to Buckingham Palace yesterday, hearing moving personal stories and seeing their touching memories.
Among the memories shared with Charles and Camilla were football boots hanging from the straps of a military backpack, dog tags still covered in blood and photographs of a much-loved wife.
Charles, in turn, read aloud from his grandfather’s handwritten diary, recounting George VI’s entry on D-Day about the latest news of the “successful landings” in June 1944.
The reunion special was filmed and will air as part of BBC One’s D-Day 80: Tribute to The Fallen on June 5.
The King and Queen listened attentively as Arthur Oborne, 100, of the 49th Division, 6th Battalion, The Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, told how he was shot in the lung three days after arriving at Gold Beach .
His life was saved by his friend Walter, who was killed the next day along with the rest of his unit.
Mr Oborne, from Portishead, near Bristol, said: “These are the dog tags that were recovered after I was shot in the lung, and there is still blood on some of them… He rescued me and, as a family ‘I’ll never forget it. We found out he was killed the next day… We visited his grave several times.’
Camilla said: “It must be very difficult to remember it all.”
The King seemed moved and nodded his head when John Dennett, 99, from Wallasey, told him: “When you look at the boys we lost, it was colossal.” He is terrifying. But that’s when you feel grateful for what you’ve been through.’
Dennett, who was a Navy gunner on a landing craft at Sword Beach, carried with him a photograph of his wife Joyce, to whom he wrote love letters during the war after meeting her in England before leaving for D-Day.
Charles in conversation with D-Day veterans Bernard Morgan and John Dennett
Queen Camilla speaking with veteran Arthur Oborne
They married two years after the end of the war.
He added: “I consider myself very lucky and appreciate being able to do what I can now and being able to enjoy the life we all strive for.”
Camilla asked centenarian RAF codebreaker Bernard Morgan, who was the youngest RAF sergeant to land at Gold Beach: “What are your memories of D-Day itself?”
Mr Morgan, from Crewe, Cheshire, replied: “When we got off the landing ship tank on the beach, the army were there picking up the poor soldiers who drowned on the initial landing.”
He showed Charles and Camilla the sturdy brown football boots he carried with him and tied to his backpack so he could play whenever he could and forget about his surroundings, and revealed that he had even organized a match while they sailed towards Normandy.
These are the football boots I wore throughout the war. “I played 12 games of football, including one on the landing ship going to Normandy,” he said.
The King told him: ‘I don’t believe it… How fantastic. They are remarkably well preserved.
Morgan joked that they were “past their sell-by date” and revealed that the match between the Army and the RAF in the lead up to D-Day had ended in a draw.
There was also Jim Miller, who just turned 100 and made headlines last week after the King personally presented him with a 100th birthday card.
Miller, who was born in Hackney, east London, but now lives in south Wales, served in the 11th Hussars Reconnaissance Regiment during the Second World War and landed on Juno Beach.
D-Day veteran Bernard Morgan (left), 100, from Crewe, salutes as veteran Jack Mortimer, 100, from Leeds, gets emotional as he travels to France on a ferry yesterday.
Corporal Aaron Stone, veterans John Life and Donald Jones are pictured yesterday after returning to Sword Beach in Normandy, France, where they landed on D-Day.
‘The memory is very important. The younger generation needs to learn about this and take it seriously,” he told the King and Queen.
Showing a photo of George VI with General Montgomery, the king spoke of the monarch’s wartime frustration at not being able to travel to Normandy immediately.
‘My grandfather was so determined to go. He became very frustrated because they didn’t let him go until several days later,” Charles said.
Reading George VI’s diary of June 6 titled D-Day, Charles said: “This was my grandfather’s diary. That was his entrance on D-Day. ‘At eight in the morning the news was given that the invasion of the European continent had begun last night.
“The airborne troops had successfully landed during the night and captured their objectives.”
“So that was something.”
