PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - WW2 veterans urged to come forward now to mark 80th anniversary of victory
Old 5th March 2025 | 20:12
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tdracer
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Originally Posted by GeeRam
There can't be that many left though, or ones that are fit enough to attend, as they'll be a min of almost 99, even if like my late father, they only served in final 6-9 months of WW2.

Most of the unit veterans associations that I used to help with back in the 90's have all long since wound up in the past decade or more as the numbers left dwindled below the 50 mark.
There was a reasonable number of D-Day vets present at the 80th Anniversary of D-Day commemoration I attended last summer (I'd estimate over 100 of them that I saw while they were leaving). While many were in wheelchairs, there were also a number who were walking unassisted. Large rounds of applause every time a group of them passed by after the ceremony.
Granted, small compared to the tens of thousands of the original participants, but as the youngest was ~98, it was still impressive.
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