On 8th June I sang for 22 US veterans in the Abbaye aux Hommes, the city hall of Caen.

Best Defense Foundation, supported by Delta Airlines, Michelin, Next Gen, and a warm and wonderful team of volunteers, arranged the tour in a specially chartered plane from Atlantis to Deauville – a rare event as the airport does not usually receive trans-Atlantic flights.

The motto of the foundation is “Taking care of the ones who took care of us.”

Cpl. Jack Myers, Company B, 692nd Tank Destroyer Battalion, attached with the 104th and 42nd Infantry Division

SSgt Jake M. Larson – “Papa Jake,” G3, V Corps

SSgt George K. Mullins, Co. C, 327th Glider Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, author of “Foxholes”

Perhaps the greatest honour of all was being asked to lead “The Star-Spangled Banner” for the veterans’ farewell dinner.

And the memory that will stay with me forever was Jack Myers pure joy when he asked me to sing “How Great Thou Art.”

The glider pilots played a fundamental role in the Normandy campaign, transporting troops and equipment. Being towed in a mostly wooden glider was not without risk.

The Glider Pilot Regiment Society was established to remember the glider pilots, bring veterans and descendants together, and to pass on the history of the Glider Pilots. In 2022 they unveiled a memorial in Ranville, and today I supported their ceremony, along with the members of Massed Bands of the Pegasus Memorial.

The story of the crew of the plane that was shot down near Grangues is tragic and awful. The surviving airmen were taken as prisoners of war and shot. The people of the commune hold a three part ceremony each year to remember the airmen, and the villagers who died, and finally a British airman called Wally Troutt.

Troutt parachuted over Grangues on 6th June 1944 when his plane caught fire. He was taken prisoner of war and marched to the Dresden camp. Miraculously, he survived and was liberated by Russian forces in April 1945. He returned to Grangues and Ranville to speak to children and share his message about war: never again.

Troutt’s wish was that his ashes would be taken back to Grangues so he could rest in the valley. He was honoured in the third and final ceremony.

The afternoon ceremony in Arromanches on 6^th June concluded with a sing along. Thank you to Ken Hay for joining in “We’ll Meet Again,” and to Henry Rice for “Auld Lang Syne.” Watch until the end to see Henry’s special dance!

Bayeux War Cemetery is the final resting place of over 4,000 people, over ten percent of whom are German and buried alongside allied enemy forces. The peacefulness of the cemetery is perhaps a good reminded of the futility of war.

Just as last year, I helped draw up the Order of Service, which on request of one of the organisations involved included a German segment in which “Der Gute Kamerad” was read and played. Afterwards, we invited the public to reflect during Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” This was something of a childhood dream come true: when I was young, most cathedral choirs did not accept girls. I always wanted to sing in such a choir and dreamt about how I might be accepted in one. If only I had known that, years later, I I would join fifteen world-class trebles from Christ Church, Oxford, to sing to Second World War veterans and other VIPs.

“Hallelujah,” with The Choristers of Worcestershire College Oxford, directed by Caius Lee, and accompanied by Staff Sergeant Bandmaster Andrew Hall of the British Army Band Tidworth.

The wreath-laying was especially moving. A chorister began the ritual by placing a wreath for his ancestor, buried at Bayeux War Cemetery. The formal wreath laying ended when veterans themselves placed wreaths. I found it moving to sing “You’ll never walk alone” after seeing the veterans struggle to walk in order to honour their companions of over eighty years ago. They have not been forgotten, nor do the veterans walk alone.

“You’ll never walk alone,” British Army Band Tidworth, Captain Peter Brydon.

On 6th June, looking out over Gold Beach which would have been utter carnage eighty-one years ago, we honoured the veterans and the fallen of the Normandy Campaign at the breath-taking British Normandy Memorial in Ver sur Mer, France. The ceremony was organised by the Spirit of Normandy Trust.

On the evening of 5th June we stood still in Bayeux Cathedral for the fallen of the Battle of Normandy, for those who returned bearing the scars of war, those who mourned, and all who are victims of war.

“I’ll Walk with God,” Webster and Brodszky, British Army Band Tidworth, conducted by Captain Peter Brydon

As well as singing, I also drew up the Order of Service. Peace was a major theme. For me, the reading by Dietrich Bonhöffer stood out: he wrote the remembrance is “seeing that which is past, and which we remember today, with all its terrors and all its godlessness, and yet not being afraid, but hearing the preaching of peace.”

With Pipe Major Tosh MacDonald and Jedburgh Pipe Band. You can just glimpse the Choristers of Worcester College, Oxford along with the clergy and standards bearer.