Surviving Normandy Veterans Remember Their Role on D-Day

PORTSMOUTH, UNITED KINGDOM - APRIL 10: Normany veteran 88-year-old Frank Rosier poses for a photograph at the D-Day Museum at Southsea seafront on April 10, 2014 in Portsmouth, England. On D-Day, June 6 1944, Frank who was aged just 18 was a private serving in 2nd Battalion, The Gloucestershire Regiment, and landed in the second wave on Gold Beach on D-Day. His unit, part of 56th Independent Brigade, which was attached to 50th Division for D-Day (and was later attached to 7th Armoured Division) was tasked with taking Bayeux. He served in the intensive infantry fighting during the Battle of Normandy, and after nearly three months he was wounded by a mortar losing his eye near Le Havre. Asked what his most vivid memory of D-Day was he replied: As a London boy who had survived the Blitz but had never seen a dead body the carnage on the beach brought me to a complete standstill. It was so horrific that it has stuck with me to this day. June 6 2014 will see the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings which saw 156,000 Allied troops from The United States, The United Kingdom, Canada, Free France and Norway begin the liberation of France which eventually helped led to the defeat of Nazi Germany. A series of commemoration events are being planned in Normandy, but with the youngest participants now at least 88-years-old, it is also expected to be the last memorial pilgrimage to France for many of the surviving veterans (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)