22422 names inscribed on the memorial, extending from D-Day to the final liberation of Normandy. Another awesome statistic to add to those already recorded elsewhere for other campaigns and battles. So few of the survivors left with us now, and this cruel pandemic meant most had to attend the video link at the NMA at Alrewas.
A moving ceremony that rightly put the veterans front and centre. Like the BC memorial in London we have waited far too long for it but it is perhaps all the more impressive for that, sited as it is immediately above Gold Beach. It now joins the other allied memorials strung along the Normandy coast celebrating the start of the liberation of Europe, a liberation that was by no means a foregone conclusion. Only the tenacity and sacrifice of those who fought there ensured success.
We Will Remember Them!