Public invited to attend service marking D-Day anniversary in Great Yarmouth borough

THE PUBLIC is invited to the annual service of thanksgiving and commemoration in Great Yarmouth to mark the anniversary of D-Day, on Wednesday, June 6.

On that date in 1944, thousands of Allied troops began landing on the beaches of Normandy, in northern France, at the start of a major offensive against the Germans, during the Second World War.

The ceremony, marking the 74th anniversary of the landings, will start at 6.30pm, in the centre of St George's Park. Following a procession of standards, there will be a service of readings, prayers and hymns, led by the Rev Canon Simon Ward, of Great Yarmouth Minster.

The service will end with an act of remembrance for those who died in the war and the singing of the National Anthem. Cllr Mary Coleman, the mayor of the Great Yarmouth borough, will lay a wreath on behalf of the borough at the Second World War Memorial.

The event is organised by Great Yarmouth Borough Council, in collaboration with the Great Yarmouth Minster and the Great Yarmouth branch of the Royal British Legion.

Cllr Coleman said: "The D-Day service is always well attended and demonstrates the strength of feeling among the community for honouring and remembering those who sacrificed so much in the landings and during the rest of the Second World War, both at home and abroad.

"D-Day, part of Operation Overlord, played a key role in achieving ultimate Allied victory in Europe, and the D-Day services remain just as relevant today as they were in the 1940s, so I look forward to another respectable turnout."