TROOPS from across Salisbury Plain took part in D Day Remembrance celebrations in Normandy following in the footsteps of their forebears who landed there in 1944.

First to arrive in France were members of the Parachute Regiment Red Devils freefall parachute team. Airborne Forces were the spearhead of the assault and the 1st Airborne Division was formed under the command of Major General Frederick (Boy) Browning with the Headquarters at Syrencote House just north of Bulford in November 1941.

The Red Devils took to France two members of that original force who jumped again, this time in tandem with team members. 94-year-old Jock Huttonl was teamed with lance Corporal Nathan Connolly and 95-year-old Harry Read from Bournemouth jumped with Corporal Michael French.

The first soldiers to land in France were 180 soldiers of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry who took off from Netheravon airfield on the night of June 5, they landed in the early hours of June 6 to capture intact two road bridges in Normandy across the River Orne and the Caen Canal.

That bridge is now known as Pegasus bridge and soldiers from the Rifles, the successor regiment, hung their flag across the bridge as their band and bugles played for the huge crowd gathered there.

The 3rd Division were in the spearhead of the assault, and at 0730, Pipe Major Trevor Macey-Lillie from 19 Regiment Royal Artillery, (The Scottish Gunners) played a lament from one of the Mulberry Harbour sections on the beach at Arromanches.

Throughout the day, the Band and Bugles of the Rifles and the Pipes and drums of 19 Regiment played a significant part in the celebrations at Arromanches and Bayeux. Soldiers from units on the Plain were acting as guides and helpers for the almost 300 veterans who attended the celebrations.

On the evening of June 6 Lieutenant Colonel Ian Holmes gave a talk at The Museum of Army Flying of the role of 43 Wessex Division in the Normandy Campaign in anticipation of a final? visit to Hill 112 in July where the Division fought one of the bloodiest battles of the campaign.