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

More than 300 British, Belgian and US parachutists landed in fields near Sannerville, which was designated drop zone K on 6 June 1944.

Among the 250 British soldiers was Lance Corporal Addy Carter, the first female to pass the Parachute Regiment’s P Company course.

Also jumping was Lieutenant Max Phillips, whose great-great-uncle Major William Tighe-Woods landed on Sword Beach on D-Day.

A poet said it was “very emotional” to perform his piece in front of D-Day veterans at the commemorations.

Tomos Roberts, a 30-year-old spoken word poet, recited his specially written piece The People Who Gave Us Today on stage at the event in Portsmouth, in front of hundreds of spectators including the King, Queen, Prince of Wales and Rishi Sunak.

But Mr Roberts - who has amassed more than 130,000 followers on Instagram and 50,000 YouTube subscribers - said it was the dozens of D-Day veterans who were present that he was most eager to please.

He said: “The main people that I was feeling very emotional about performing in front of are actually the veterans that were in attendance today.

“I feel, you know, this could be the last anniversary of D-Day where we have people who were there in attendance and that really hit home when I was writing the poem.”

The King and Queen will open a new educational centre at the site of the British Normandy memorial in France on Thursday.

The Winston Churchill Centre for Education and Learning will house two exhibition galleries, curated by the Royal British Legion, telling the stories of those who fought on D-Day and in the Battle of Normandy.

The centre will also feature a purpose-built classroom to host school groups, teaching them how the landings were possible.

The Princess Royal has paid tribute to British D-Day veterans, telling one he was the reason she performed her public role.

Anne met the former servicemen as they gathered in Normandy to remember fallen colleagues and their own efforts at the Royal British Legion’s poignant service of commemoration at Bayeux War Cemetery.

Anne chatted to Don Jones, 99, who served in the Royal Navy ferrying men and equipment to Sword Beach.

She told the veteran that a reason she carries out her role “is because I meet people like you”.

Mr Jones, from Mold, north Wales, who was a 19-year-old Able Seaman with the Royal Navy, said he focused on his job on June 6 1944 as the cacophony of battle was so great.

He said after speaking to the princess: “I was in the Royal Navy on a tank landing craft. We took tanks and materials across and were dropping them off on Sword Beach. Then the following two months we were backwards and forwards with materials.

“I think on our third journey we brought prisoners back, and for the next two journeys after that, about 500 prisoners in all.

“It was so busy, I couldn’t absorb everything that was going on, the noise was so great. The bigger ships with the huge guns were firing over us all the time, firing inland to try and clear the enemy positions.”

A minute’s silence was observed in remembrance of the fallen.

A British paratrooper whose grandfather fought for the Nazis on D-Day has said he would “love to turn back time” and question him.

Captain Maik Biggs was among 250 soldiers from the Army’s 16 Air Assault Brigade who landed on fields near Sannerville in Normandy, which was designated drop zone K in 1944.

His grandfather Obergefreiter Gustav Koster, the equivalent of lance corporal, was stationed in Normandy with the German 915th Grenadier Regiment when the allies invaded.

The unit was held in reserve near Bayeux and moved towards the beaches following the first sightings of the landing fleet.

His grandfather later became a prisoner of war before returning to Germany. He died in 1998.

Mr Briggs, who was born and raised near Stadthagen in Germany, siad: “My grandfather was a mundane soldier, he had to fight for Germany back then.

“I do think about him often, he survived the war, I vividly remember growing up clearly too young to understand what he went through.”

He added: “I’d love to turn back time and ask him a few questions.”