It was a privilege to have been invited to the UK National Memorial in France to mark D-Day

“When you go home, tell them of us and say: For your tomorrow we gave our today.”

On Thursday, I was fortunate to be one of 2,000 people invited to the UK National Memorial in France to mark the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings, when Allied troops crossed the English Channel to begin the liberation of Europe on June 6th, 1944.

Attended by His Majesty the King, the Prime Minister, and president Macron of France, the ceremony was both powerful and poignant, with spontaneous applause from the audience every time one of the forty-one veterans attending arrived at their seats.

I am so grateful to the British Legion for the honour and privilege to be able to represent my family and to remember not only my grandfather, who died during that summer in Normandy, but all of those who gave their lives to change the course of history and ensure the freedom we take for granted today. Indeed, as King Charles noted during his speech, the lesson of the Second World War was that “free nations must stand together to oppose tyranny”.

What was so special about this event was the testimonies of those veterans present being read out for probably the last time, including memories of their friends who had fallen beside them and stories of their time in Normandy eighty years ago.

Take that of Joe Mines, who landed on the beaches at the age of 19 and has not been back since. His story was brilliantly read by the actor Martin Freeman, as he said, “Why would I come back? This is the last and only opportunity for me, the last there will ever be. And it’s because of the lads. I want to pay my respects to those who did not make it. May they rest in peace.”

And that is what this 80th anniversary was really all about - all of those I spoke to during the day had stories of fathers, grandfathers, and uncles who took part in the invasion eighty years ago, many of whom never returned.

The story of my own grandfather is of a young man from the Llyn Peninsula joining the Merchant Navy before the war and posted to the SS Amsterdam in 1939. This passenger ship had ferried travellers between Harwich and the Hook of Holland before being commissioned into wartime service and being camouflaged and equipped with six Landing Craft Assaults (LCAs) to support military operations.

On D-Day, the SS Amsterdam played a crucial role, arriving off the coast of France around 3:00am.

The ship’s LCAs, laden with US Army Rangers, launched towards the end of Omaha Beach, where they scaled the 100 ft. cliffs of Pointe du Hoc, destroying a critical German battery and playing a crucial role in the Allied successes of the first few days of the invasion.

Following D-Day, the SS Amsterdam was sent to Glasgow to be refitted as a hospital ship and equipped with wards and operating theatres. My grandfather came back to Rhoshirwaun to see his wife and two sons before being called back to rejoin his crewmates. The last memory my father has is of him waving goodbye as the train left Pwllheli station and it was the only time he remembers tears in his own father’s eyes as if he knew they would never see each other again.

For several weeks, the SS Amsterdam ferried the wounded from the French coast back to Southampton, and this routine continued until disaster struck on August 7, 1944. While anchored and preparing to sail the next day, the ship was hit by a German mine off Arromanches, causing the ship to list and break apart quickly.

But even then, there was bravery in these terrible circumstances, as two nurses serving on the hospital ship selflessly returned below deck to save seventy-five trapped patients until they were never seen again. Anyta Field and Mollie Evershed are now commemorated with two unique Standing with Giants silhouettes at the Normandy memorial.

The sinking of the SS Amsterdam resulted in the loss of 106 lives, including that of my grandfather Evan Jones Evans, demonstrating not only the perilous nature of wartime operations but the sacrifices made by the unsung heroes of the Merchant Navy.

They weren’t the only ones who perished during that long summer, and during three months of fierce fighting, 22,442 of those serving in British forces were killed before the Germans started their retreat.

As I stood looking at all the names carved in stone of those who lost their lives at Normandy in the summer of 1944, it reminded me again of my previous visits to the military graveyards across Northern France and the fact that so many of those who died were younger than my own sons when they landed on those beaches.

And eighty years later, we should never forget how they made the ultimate sacrifice that helped to change the world for the better.

“They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.”