D-Day 60th Anniversary

Having been strangely omitted from the official guest list for the 60th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, Dan decides that he and a colleague of his, Sean, are going to gatecrash and give their Canadian Forces uniforms an airing. How better to get there than be flown in a private plane – OK, actually we had planned it for a few months, but it sounds better the way I’ve just told it.

We already had the hotel booked, Chateau le Chassagne near, well - I’m not sure, but a fair way to the east of Caen and inland from Deauville (as everything closer had been booked for months). The nearest airfield I could use that wasn’t closed for security reasons, was Le Harve, even then I had to formally pre-book.



We set out on Friday from Gloucester. The weather was good, with scattered cumulus at 2500’, so I went ‘on top’ at 4500’.

We crossed the coast at GWC headed directly via SITET to Le Harve. I notice that the clouds below me started to close up and ahead at mid-channel, they look like they have changed in nature and gone ‘solid’. London Information ask warily if I have permission to land at Le Harve. I confirm that I have but they decide to check. They come back and confirm that indeed I have, but the bad news is that the ‘cloud’ I now see is low fog and Le Harve have 300m visibility in fog and are closed at the moment!

Further enquiries confirm my alternates in France are also fog-bound, so I divert to Shoreham. I get distracted on my final approach and make a landing that measures a 7.3 on the Richter scale :-(

We adjourn to the bar at about 12:00 for lunch and of course beer for the passengers (no – that’s fine, you go ahead, I’ll stick with the orange juice!). The forecast is for the fog to move slowly east and clear during the afternoon, so we wait and ring for regular updates.

Meanwhile, Sean and Dan are ‘scooping it up’ at the bar. Dan spots a nice Fosters glass and conceals it in the arm of my windbreaker with a knot tied in the sleeve.



By 16:00 the weather has still not fully cleared in Le Harve, but it is improving fast enough for us to give it a go before Le Harve closes. This time, we get to within 10 miles and are asked to ‘orbit’ by Le Harve who are busy with government officials in various expensive jets shooting instrument approaches. So we orbit, and orbit and orbit – Sean has now gone very quiet in the back. I pester them and we are cleared to approach to five mile – and orbit.

After 20 minutes of holding we are cleared to approach, but they give the cloud base at 600’ above the airfield. I can’t understand this as we are in hazy but clear sky, then the reason become apparent – the fog has lifted to low cloud which starts exactly on the coast and covers inland – the seaward side is fine and clear! I approach at 1000’ on the seaward side of the coast along the cliffs and spot the airfield between the narrow gap between the top of the cliff and the low cloud. The controller helpfully suggests that as I am visual, I can make a low circuit approach and land on the northerly runway with a slight tailwind ‘at my discretion’. So I squeeze the plane between the cliff and the cloud base on the lowest base turn I have ever done, probably 500’ AGL or so. Fortunately, the runway is plenty long enough and the landing is good.

No sooner had I cut the engine, than Sean leaps out of the plane and the reason for his silence becomes apparent – he immediately starts to relieve himself (I swear before his feet even touch the ground!). Meanwhile, an attractive and well dressed French lady is teetering over to where we have stopped! Dan spares her blushes and bounds over to meet her before she see Sean (who is in mid-flow and couldn’t stop to save his life). Turns out she is a ‘meet and greet’ – she is amazed that Canadians have flown ‘all that way’ (she thinks we have come from Canada) in such a small plane!



We clear the terminal and wait for Dan to pick up the hire car and yes, more beer! The hotel book dinner for us in a very nice (but not cheap) local restaurant. Sean is horrified by the bill and proceeds to mop up the sauce from each plate with bread. This is topped off by beer and wine around midnight at the outdoor pool at the hotel. Sean sleeps soundly that night in a shared room with Dan, but Dan is troubled by the sound of rain and sleeps badly (ask him).

On Saturday we head for the Juno beach area and get all the required passes for the next two days, then attend a formal ceremony at the Beny-sur-Mer Canadian military cemetery. The Canadian Governor General was there and nearly spoke to Dan, but a young lad leaped between them – I could see she was disappointed! Dan and Sean meet Canadian Forces colleagues and we are introduced to ‘Smokey Smith’ the only surviving Canadian VC holder.



So on Sunday 6th June, Dan and Sean don their uniforms (yes – they did shrink in-flight) and we drive to Juno beach for the 11:00 we were advised. Just outside Caen, security are turning people away without passes (including actual D-Day veterans – who comment sourly that it was easier to get to the beach in 1944!), but we get through the first checkpoint with our passes. At the checkpoint near the beach, we are stopped again and asked for our special ‘beach passes’ – the ones we have will only allow us to this point apparently. The police relent and ask (with a wink) if we were with the coach in front – a hurried ‘yes’ is sufficient and we are waved on.



Unfortunately, we were given the wrong time, and most of the formal ceremony had already finished, but we saw some of the later events. It was sunny and hot and Sean in particular was suffering in his dark green dress uniform. Having toured the area and met more colleagues, we returned to the car, changed and went back to the beach for a wander, lunch and a few beers.

Following a fly-past by WW2 aircraft, we decide to cool off by going back to the hotel for a swim and freshen up before trying to meet up with their Canadian colleagues in Deauville.

It is at the pool that Dan discovered that his digital camera bounces nicely on tiles, but doesn’t float!

The following day, we head for the airfield, via Honfleur. We stock up on wine at the local ‘Champion’ and are initially delayed by crowds in the town. The cause of the delay was a visit by Queen Elizabeth – she was pretty broken up to have missed Dan! What a lovely little fishing port Honfleur is (mental note – must come back here with the wife). We have a late ‘petit dejeneur’ at the quayside and a wander around the town, then on to the airfield.



The final, unexpected treat was that once airside at Le Harve, laid out in front of us was the Battle of Britain memorial flight, with a Spitfire, Lancaster and a Hurricane (and a spare Dakota DC3). We didn’t have much time, so with the crews permission, had a good look around the Lancaster. I did offer the Spitfire pilot a go in my TB10 if I could try the Spit – but no dice!



A nice uneventful return to Gloucester topped of a really great trip.