Army Reserve volunteers of the Royal Yeomanry from Leicestershire will play a key part in the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of D-Day.
They will form part of the guard of honour for the senior members of the Royal Family attending the main British Service of Commemoration in Bayeux tomorrow (June 6).
E (Leicestershire & Derbyshire Yeomanry) Squadron, Royal Yeomanry, will be among soldiers forming a guard of honour at the Bayeux War Graves Cemetery to Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.
Nine members of the Tigers Road, Wigston-based squadron will be part of a 90-strong Royal Yeomanry contingent, including 30 from the regimental band, at the event.
They will be joined by a contingent of almost 300 Normandy veterans, which will include representatives from Leicestershire, making, for many, in their mid-late 90s, their last visit of commemoration.
Major Matthew Webb, Officer Commanding E Sqn from 2015 to 2018, prior to his recent posting as second-in-command of the regiment, said: “Up to 4,000 troops from the British military will be involved in the course of the commemorative events.
“Out of all of those, it is a privilege to form the guard of honour to the most senior of those attending the event.
“That they have picked an Army Reserve unit to do it is a wonderful honour, particularly in what is likely to be the last commemoration when a significant number of veterans are alive or fit to travel.”
The Royal Yeomanry, which is the senior Light Cavalry regiment in the British Army Reserve, had 10 regiments land in Normandy on D-Day and D-Day plus one.
The Leicestershire Yeomanry served as 153 Field Artillery Regiment within the Guards Armoured Division during the invasion.
While in France, the regiment will also be visiting battle sites and cemeteries where it fought and where its soldiers are buried.
A total of 250 members of the Royal Yeomanry will also parade, at the invitation of the French city, through Bayeux, in honour of its antecedent regiment, the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry, which liberated the French city during the Normandy invasion.
The regiment is in Normandy, having spent nine days taking part in Exercise YEOMAN OVERLORD, on Salisbury Plain.
The exercise saw more than 200 members of the Royal Yeomanry taking part in its largest mounted exercise this century.
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