Day 5 - Tuesday 5 June

Sightseeing was put a little on hold today, as we began two days of participation in some of the ceremonies held each year in Normandy to commemorate those who lost their lives during the D-Day landings, to honour the survivors and to remember those who have died since the war. Each year there are fewer veterans and since we have been visiting for 9 years now (with a different group of Cadets each year) inevitably some dear friends have been lost along the way.

Oxfordshire (The Rifles) Battalion, Army Cadet Force, has links (through the Royal Green Jackets, our former Regiment) back to the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. The 2nd Battalion Ox & Bucks were gliderborne troops and part of the 6th Airborne Division on D-Day. They were tasked to take and hold the bridges across the Caen Canal and River Orne (today known as Pegasus and Horsa Bridges respectively). The gliders landed at approximately 00:16 on 6th June, and led by Major John Howard they, within 12 - 15 minutes, achieved their objective to take the Bridges. They held them until relieved by elements of the 7th Parachute Regiment in the early hours on the morning.

At midday, we were honoured to stand alongside veterans and relatives of veterans at the replica Horsa Glider at the Pegasus Memorial Museum, and remember those who gave their lives here. We provided a Bugler for the Ox & Bucks wreath-laying ceremony and at 12:30 held our own ceremony and laid a wreath nearby on the original Pegasus Bridge (which stands in the museum grounds). General Sir Robert Pascoe, late Ox & Bucks, and Mrs Penny Bates, daughter of Major John Howard were in attendance. Mrs Bates thanked the Cadets for being in Normandy.

The Cadets had the chance to look around the Museum and explore the history of the Ox & Bucks participation in D-Day.

We travelled across to Bayeux after lunch, and visited the Battle of Normandy Museum which tells the story of D-Day and the battles of the weeks following the invasion. Afterwards we visited the British Military Cemetery in Bayeux and laid our wreath at the memorial there. Today the Bugle was played by Mark Hames, a former Cadet and currently a Serjeant Instructor with Oxfordshire Army Cadet Force.