Battle to save Allies' D-Day HQ

THIS crumbling French farmhouse looks like any one of the thousands dotting the Normandy countryside.

- Giles Sheldrick

Yet the unassuming stone building is arguably the most significant structure in Northern France.

It was commandeered by Major John Howard after the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry captured Pegasus Bridge at 12.16am on June 6, 1944, in a surprise attack - one of the first acts of D-Day.

Hours later commandos from Lord Lovat's 1st Special Service Brigade landed at Sword Beach and marched three miles to relieve the airborne troops at Pegasus Bridge.

The farmhouse at Amfreville then became the first Allied headquarters in the operation to liberate occupied France and secure freedom in Europe.

But despite its key part in history the property was allowed to fall into disrepair and in 2022 the roof fell in.

The scandal prompted veterans and relatives of those who served in Normandy to launch a campaign.

Symbolic

They want the French authorities to buy the land and return the historic farmhouse to its former glory.

Campaign coordinator Geoffroy Platel, 42, a former sergeant in the French Colonial Field Artillery, has gained 3,000 petition signatures.

He said: "We want to preserve this historic site. It is an essential place in the history of the Battle of Normandy.