THEY DID NOT FLINCH

BRITAIN'S D-Day heroes were praised by the King for their "bravery and sacrifice" in facing the "supreme test" and winning our freedom.

- Giles Sheldrick

In a heartfelt and deeply moving speech, he paid tribute to the "remarkable wartime generation," on the 80th anniversary of the Normandy beach landings.

Veterans were overcome with emotion as the King expressed "profound gratitude" for the men and women "who did not flinch when the moment came to face that test".

The King and Queen also wiped tears away during the commemorative service at the Normandy Memorial in Versur-Mer, France. Addressing an emotional crowd of veterans, Charles, 75, echoed the speech broadcast 80 years ago by his grandfather, George VI who said: "Once more a supreme test has to be faced.

This time the challenge is not to fight to survive, but to win the final victory for a cause." Charles good said: "It is with the most profound sense of gratitude that we remember them and all who served at that critical time." He stressed: "Our gratitude is unfailing and our admiration eternal.

"How fortunate we were, and the entire free world, that a generation of men and women in the United Kingdom and other Allied nations did not flinch when the moment came to face that test.

"On the beaches of Normandy, on the seas beyond and in the skies overhead, our Armed Forces carried out their duty with a humbling sense of resolve and determination, qualities so characteristic of that remarkable wartime generation.

"Very many of them never came home, they lost their lives on the D-Day landing grounds or in the many battles that followed.