Veterans gather at D-Day planning headquarters

Normandy veterans pose for a photograph in the map room at Southwick House.

D-Day veterans have spoken of their "sad memories" as they gathered at the headquarters where the invasion was planned, to mark the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings.

About 40 veterans met at Southwick House, near Portsmouth, which was the headquarters of Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight Eisenhower.

George Chandler, from Burgess Hill, West Sussex, served aboard the British motor torpedo boat MTB 710 as part of a flotilla which provided a guarding escort for the US Army assault on Omaha and Utah beaches.

The 99-year-old said: “I was 19 at the time, these kids were younger than me when I was there and I saw them shot."

George Chandler, in the Map room at Southwick House the nerve centre of D-Day operations 80 years ago

For about three months without a break, Mr Chandler's flotilla returned to Newhaven, east Sussex, each night for refuelling and rearming and a few hours of sleep before returning across the Channel.

After the Normandy campaign, his boat was deployed to the Mediterranean where it suffered damage before being sunk in April 1945.

Mr Chandler said: "Let me assure you, what you read in those silly books that have been written about D-Day are absolute crap, it's a load of old rubbish.

"I was there, how can I forget it? It's a very sad memory because I watched young American Rangers not shot, slaughtered.

"And they were young. I was 19 at the time, these kids were younger than me when I was there and I saw them shot."

(L-R) Marie Scott is fifth from the left to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day on Thursday

Marie Scott, 97, served with the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) at Fort Southwick as a "switchboard operator" using a machine connected to the landing forces in France.

Her job was to pass messages from the troops on the beaches to the leaders of Operation Overlord, Gen Eisenhower and Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, who were stationed nearby in Southwick House.

Ms Scott was awarded France's highest order of merit, the Legion d'Honneur, in recognition of her contribution to the liberation of the country - described how she could hear the reality of the battle taking place.

She said: "I was a little bemused when I first heard it, then I thought to myself, oh, you know, this is war.

"You could hear everything, machine gun fire, cannon fire, bombs dropping, men shouting, the general chaos."

The majority of the veterans who attended the gathering at Southwick House were brought by the Royal British Legion, the Spirit of Normandy Trust and the Taxi Charity for Military Veterans.

The visit is thought to be the largest meeting of surviving D-Day veterans this year, as some are not well enough to make the journey to Normandy for the 80th anniversary.

Many of the veterans will travel to Normandy on Tuesday morning, while others will remain in the UK to attend the national commemorative event in Portsmouth on Wednesday.

Southwick House is a Grade II-listed Georgian mansion house that was the nerve centre of D-Day.