British paratroopers who led an historic reenactment to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day were met by French border officials immediately after they touched down Wednesday in a Normandy field.
The visitors reportedly were directed to quickly fold their parachutes and form an orderly queue. They then offered the requested documents and outlined the purpose of their visit to seated French passport control officials as directed, Reuters reports.
Around 320 British, Belgian and U.S. paratroopers took part in the multinational jump to recreate one of the defining the events of June 6, 1944.
“It is something we haven’t experienced before,” Brigadier Mark Berry, the British paratroopers’ commander, told the Sun newspaper.
“But given the royal welcome we have had from every other feature, it seems like a very small price to pay for coming to France,” he cheerily added.
Some 400 British, Belgian, Canadian and US paratroopers take part in a parachute drop to commemorate the contribution of airborne forces on D-Day. as part of the 80th anniversary of D-Day, in Sannerville, Normandy, France, Wednesday, June 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)
British citizens no longer have the right to move freely within the European Union and face stricter immigration checks since Brexit.
The British paratroopers – the bulk of whom were supplied by he British Army’s 16 Air Assault Brigade – exited three A400M military aircraft over Sannerville, mirroring the airdrop made eight decades earlier out of RAF Dakota aircraft.
Military aircraft from the U.S. and Belgium followed in formation, Reuters reports.
File/In this photo provided by the U.S. Army Signal Corps, U.S. paratroopers fix their static lines before a jump before dawn over Normandy on D-Day June 6, 1944, in France. (AP Photo/U.S. Army Signal Corps)
Early on June 6, 1944, thousands of Allied airborne forces parachuted into drop zones along the Normandy coast.
The paratroopers landed behind German lines, tasked with disrupting German defences, capturing strategic bridges and establishing defensive positions ahead of the five main beach assault waves.
