D-Day – latest: Veteran warns ‘UK on a knife edge’ as Biden says world ‘won’t surrender’ at 80th anniversary

Here is a picture of Les Budding, a D-Day veteran who warned on Thursday that he fears, “for many, this is the most dangerous time we have lived through”.

The last major commemorative event of the 80th anniversary of D-Day was running at least an hour late, with US president Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden the last to arrive.

He quickly greeted some of the world leaders in the front row of the main stand and shared a few words with William before taking his seat.

The event began with contemporary black-and-white footage shown of D-Day and the following days, with bodies lying on the beaches and the wounded being tended.

A former Royal Marine who served on a landing craft charged with providing covering fire for the first wave of troops who stormed Sword Beach on D-Day has warned that he believes the UK is “living on a knife edge” in the face of a coming war.

Les Budding, who turns 99 in July, told the BBC: “For many, this is the most dangerous time we have lived through. Another war is coming.”

“I am worried about the future,” he added. “I am concerned about what young people will have to face in the coming years. We are no longer the force we were. We are not prepared.”

“We’re living on a knife edge. People are living in cloud cuckoo land,” Mr Budding continued. “Other countries like Russia and North Korea have been building up their armed forces but we have been sitting back hoping they will see sense. But it’s not going to work.”

A D-Day veteran who paid tribute at the UK national commemorative event to a friend who saved his life, said he became a “bit tearful”.

Arthur Oborne, aged 100, recalled being shot in the lung three days after arriving on Gold Beach. His life was saved by his friend Walter Gummerson, who was killed the next day alongside the rest of his unit.

Mr Oborne, from Portishead, Somerset, told the crowd: “I wish I could tell him that I have never taken his sacrifice for granted and will always remember him and our friends. So Gummy, thank you my old friend.”

Afterwards he said: “I had no problems talking but it was a bit emotional, I was a bit upset and teary. I think everyone did well at the service, I was a bit apprehensive at the start but I wanted to speak.”

As world leaders join veterans in Normandy marking the 80th anniversary of the Allied campaign to liberate Europe, the valour of the past meets the virtue of the present – but it is clear that the forces of darkness that engulfed much of the continent in the 1930s are still alive, writes historian Anthony Seldon:

As the commemorative events continue in Normandy, watch French President Macron leading the ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day live:

Eighty years to the day British, American, and Canadian soldiers landed in France and began the fight to liberate Europe from Hitler, President Joe Biden told an audience of world leaders and veterans that their fight against Nazism is echoed in the fight against Russian aggression being waged by Ukrainian soldiers and their allies today.

Biden, who traveled to France on Tuesday for the anniversary of the allied invasion of Europe known as Operation Overlord, told the assembled veterans, that it was his “highest honor” to salute them, as he recalled how several of the individuals present on stage with him had contributed to the allied victory that day.

Andrew Feinberg reports: