Today, the 6th of June, marks 75 years since the Normandy landing, an allied invasion that marked the end of Worl War II.
To commemorate the occasion, Queen Elizabeth joined other world leaders overnight for the 75th anniversary of D-Day, where she gave a powerful speech to an engrossed crowd of some 300 servicemen.
WATCH Queen Elizabeth’s moving D-Day speech in the video below!
As well as her rousing words and a moving commemoration ceremony, Her Majesty took the moment to meet with a small group of elderly ex-servicemen and women who were all involved with the Normandy landings, where she jokingly told a D-Day veteran he did not have to remind her about the horrors of the liberation of Europe – as she was from his generation.
Joined by her son, Prince Charles, and US president Donald Trump and wife Melania, the mood was significantly lighter as the Queen shook hands and chatted with the servicemen, including 94-year-old royal marine Jack Smith, who was part of the first wave during D-Day.
Jack told Her Majesty about his time at war, and how he spent almost three months at the Normandy beaches ferrying the injured, munitions and other cargo, sleeping on his vessel under a tarpaulin sheet and was regularly strafed with bullets by Nazi planes.
According to Jack’s son-in-law, when the veteran told Her Majesty about the devastating conditions on D-Day, the Queen reportedly replied: “You don’t have to tell me – I’m from the same generation.”
According to Jack’s son-in-law, the elderly man teased the 93-year-old Queen, quipping back, “I’m older than you!”
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