Normandy 2009 D-Day Tour

Alan Hames, 28 August 2009

22 members of Oxfordshire (The Rifles) Army Cadet Force were in Normandy from 2nd to 8th June undertaking the 11th Annual Oxfordshire ACF Battlefield Tour and participating in ceremonies to mark the 65th Anniversary of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy.

During 2nd to 4th June the group visited the British, Sword and Gold, Canadian, Juno, and US, Omaha and Utah, beaches. On 5th to 7th June the group took part in a number of ceremonies, mainly associated with their predecessor regiment, The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. These included, on 5th June, providing the Guard of Honour for the French ceremony at the original Pegasus Bridge and the Ox and Bucks Veterans ceremony at the replica Horsa glider in the grounds of the Memorial Pegasus Museum, plus in the afternoon joining the local French Mayor for a ceremony at a Memorial for the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, a Canadian sister regiment, at Graye-sur-Mer.

On 6th June, the group marched in the Benouville Mayor’s Parade across the replacement Pegasus Bridge to a ceremony by the glider landing zone of Major John Howard’s Coup de Main party of the Ox and Bucks, where the cadets laid a wreath at the Memorial. In the afternoon the group attended and were involved in the ceremony at the Memorial Pegasus Museum, when the Chief of the General Staff, Sir Richard Dannett, unveiled a new memorial to the Coup de Main party. The 7th June saw the group take part in ceremonies at two local villages, Escoville and Herouvillette, which were the sites of fierce fighting in 1944 and marked the extent of the Ox and Bucks advance in Normandy. In the afternoon, the group went to the Military Cemetery at Tilly-sur-Seulles, where the Great Great Uncle of two of the cadets is buried and a simple ceremony was held.

The final ceremony was the groups’ own at the British Military Cemetery in Bayeux, where a wreath was laid in memory of all British servicemen and women who had died on D-Day and the subsequent Battle of Normandy. Buglers from the group played last post and Reveille at all the local ceremonies.

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CGS Sir Richard Dannatt unveiling the Memorial to the 1944 Coup de Main group

Veterans of the 1944 Coup de Main group parading across Pegasus Bridge

Ceremony at Canadian Winnipeg Rifles memorial - Graye-sur-Mer

Ceremony at Ox & Bucks LI glider landing zone

Cadet Guard for Coup de Main Memorial unveiling ceremoney

Attendees of the Normandy 2009 Tour - Longues-sur-Mer gun battery

Normandy 2009 D-Day Tour

Officers and instructors

Cadets

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