Scots veterans return to Normandy to relive D-Day for 75th anniversary

Charles Horne from Port Seton. Pic: Wattie Cheung

To mark the historic event, Legion Scotland and Poppyscotland commissioned portraits of the men as they relived 6 June 1944.

The invasion of France, codenamed Operation Overlord, was the largest seaborne invasion in history and was the beginning of the campaign to defeat the Nazis.

The Scots – Ian Forsyth, 95, from Hamilton, Lanarkshire; James Churm, 94, from Castle Douglas, Kirkcudbrightshire; Jim Glennie, 93, from Aberdeen; Denis Gregson, 94, from Lanarkshire; John McOwan, 98, from Peebles and Charles Horne, 93, from Port Seton, will be part of a group of 300 D-Day veterans travelling on the chartered the cruise ship MV Boudicca to Bayeux in France to commemorate the landings.

John McOwan from Peebles. Pic: Wattie Cheung

They will take centre stage at commemorative events in Portsmouth on Wednesday before retracing their famous journey across the Channel on Thursday.

Mr Horne served as a stoker on a minesweeper alongside American forces, and returned from the war to go back to his pre-war job working as a fisherman.

He said: “We were the first Allied vessels to arrive, before the D-Day landings.

“We got some cover from the American warships firing over our heads towards the German placements.

“The noise was deafening. After it started, the shelling went on day and night and we never got any sleep. That said, I suppose it didn’t help that I didn’t have a real bed and had to sleep on a seat.

“I later heard that 2,000 men were killed on Omaha Beach that morning, so, I do feel lucky that I was one of the ones that came home. During the operation, a minesweeper the same as ours was hit and sank in five minutes.”

Dr Claire Armstrong, chief executive of Legion Scotland, said “D-Day was a pivotal moment in the Second World War. The remarkable stories of these Scottish veterans provide us with an important reminder of both the bravery and tragedy which surrounds that day.”