Anglia Motel Veterans champion Harold Payne’s final 80th D-Day voyage pays respects to the fallen
The organiser of a voyage to France to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day is on his final pilgrimage to pay tribute to the bravery of our armed forces.
Harold Payne has taken a final coach party to Normandy to pay respects to allied forces killed in World War II. Sadly, any remaining veterans who would have accompanied him for today’s (Thursday’s) anniversary have since died.
The veterans' champion, who owns the Anglia Motel in Fleet Hargate, said: “Over the past 30 years I have had the honour to take local veterans back to Normandy to pay respect to their fallen comrades.
“Now for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, for the first and final time I will be returning without any veterans as they have now all passed away.
“For this, my final tribute to the bravery of all those who died for our freedom, I shall return taking with me my amphibious landing craft to the beaches where all those years ago so many lost their lives.”
To break the Nazis’ stranglehold on Europe, Allied forces launched Operation Overlord on June 6, 1944, when thousands of British, American and Canadian troops landed on the beaches of Normandy to fight their way up – while being battered by enemy fire.
The sea was reported to run red and nearly 4,000 deaths and 11,000 allied casualties were recorded by the end of that first fateful day.
The pilgrimages from Lincolnshire were launched after a former soldier had stopped at Harold’s Anglian Motel in Fleet Hargate and shared how he didn’t have the means to return to see the friends he had left behind in Arnhem and Normandy.
Mr Payne plans to go into the sea in the early hours of today to lay red rose petals and poppies.
He said: “They may be washed ashore as a reminder of the loss of so many lives.”
The charity campaigner has raised funds in aid of veterans to make a pilgrimage to Normandy and visit cemeteries to lay flowers on the graves of friends.
To help fund such trips there have been sponsors such as Fleet Parish Council, J Z Flowers and Turnbulls in Sleaford.
He said: “I am fortunate and immensely grateful to have received many sponsors.
“Many friends and colleagues have also helped to make this memorial tribute possible and I wish to truly thank them on behalf of myself and the past veterans.”
