Nia Griffith MP commemorates D-Day in Normandy

ALONG with First Minister Mark Drakeford, Prime Minister Theresa May, Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn and their Royal Highnesses Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, Ms Griffith attended the D-Day commemorative services in Bayeux Cathedral and in Bayeux War Cemetery.

She said, “It was a great privilege to be able to attend the D-Day commemorations in Normandy this year. This occasion was all the more poignant because for many people who served, now in their 90s, this would be the last significant anniversary of the events of D-Day.

“There were very moving eye-witness accounts by soldiers, pilots and French civilians, reminding us of the huge scale of the operation which saw some 156,000 Allied troops land on the Normandy beaches, of whom some 10,000 were to die on that day alone. During the services, 95-year-old Frank Baugh read a very moving account of his experience of D-Day as a Royal Navy signalman.

“Around 300 veterans travelled from all over the UK to sail across the Channel from Portsmouth to Normandy for the events, and it was a great privilege to have the opportunity to meet and hear from some of them. They spoke so modestly not just of their participation in D-Day, but also of other campaigns they were involved in, such as in the Far East.

“D-Day was the beginning of the eventual defeat of the Nazis, with their hideous fascist ideology. We must never forget that terrible suffering, nor the immense sacrifices made to defeat the Nazis. And we owe it to those who fought and gave their lives for our freedom to value that freedom, and to speak out loudly and clearly against antisemitism and all forms of racism and prejudice.”