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D-Day 80 Poppy Lapel Pin
The Royal British Legion have worked with our inspirational veteran owned business, Icarus, to create this unique and bespoke D-Day 80 Lapel Pin.
Icarus were able to design this item to include elements of the events in June 1944 - sand from Gold Beach, Normandy, and metal shavings of the landing craft LCT 7074 used at D-Day, now fully restored and on display at The D-Day Story in Portsmouth.
We have the absolute honour of sharing four of the surviving veterans’ experiences of D-Day nearly 80 years ago whose stories are included in the leaflet accompanying the pin. At the back of the leaflet, we have included a full list of allied forces who sadly did not come home from this historical day. Lest we forget.
Albert Price
Albert volunteered for service and joined Royal Dragoon Guards aged just 17. Sadly, just a week before the D-Day landings, he had been the only living survivor of Operation Smash which was an exercise to test British Valentine Duplex Drive tanks’ amphibious landing on a Dorset beach. Others taking part in the rehearsal drowned – 6 men and 5 tanks were lost in the exercise in front of Field Marshal Montgomery. At 18 years of age, just a week after this training exercise, he took part in the D-Day landing on Gold beach, driving a Sherman Tank.
When he landed, there was so much artillery fire happening on the beach that they struggled to see clearly and as they made their way inland, they had to zig zag through the mines whilst shells flew over their heads. On the second day, Albert’s tank was hit, he sustained a head wound and was subsequently shot in his left foot whilst a ricochet hit his right shoulder. He was eventually rescued and taken to an aid station and was very lucky to survive to tell the tale!
Bernard Morgan
Bernard volunteered for the RAF on his 18th birthday, like thousands of other young men did in the war.
At just 20, he was the youngest RAF sergeant to land in Normandy, arriving on a landing craft-ship having to operate the Bren gun for low flying aircraft, which saw them complete the two-hour crossing, luckily, without any low flying aircraft! Bernard said he was ‘frightened to death’ nevertheless! There were so many other landing craft and ships and as they waited for their time to land on the beach, they watched many of the other ships get blown up, and many soldiers lost their lives.
He said, “Gold Beach was one of the better landing points on D-Day, but I can still vividly remember seeing dead bodies scattered all over the beach as I came ashore, and that is a sight that will stay with me forever.” D-Day veteran Bernard was a codebreaker during the War, and the equipment he used was so sensitive that he couldn’t risk it being captured by the enemy.
Two days before VE Day, he received a telex to say, “German war now over, surrender effective sometime tomorrow” and on 8th May it was confirmed that the war in Europe had ended. Bernard had a big party with his comrades – they lit a huge bonfire and celebrated late into the night.
He left the RAF in Feb 1947 and, since then, has worked at Crewe Alexandra FC as a turnstile operator – for 57 years! He still sells programmes at Gresty Road, where he has been given a season ticket for life!
Jack Mortimer
Jack was 20 years old when he landed on Sword Beach. In his words, “I was driving a jeep with a trailer and the raft took us closer to Sword Beach. There were hundreds of boats either side of us, but getting off the boat was very tricky, the sea was up and down, and you had to wait for a sailor to change his lamp from red to green.”
“All the time this was happening there were battleships behind firing over our heads, rockets flying over, hundreds of them.
It was noisy, smoky, but I got a good landing. Driving up that beach, the noise, the smoke, frightened us to death, hearing guns going off and seeing thousands of soldiers and ships on either side, it was organised Army chaos. The preceding vehicles had put down a track to take us up off the beach and onto the road, near Lyon-sur-Mer.”
“I wouldn’t be here but for the paras who landed near Ranville - there were some big guns there and the paras took them out, otherwise Sword Beach could’ve been shelled out of existence. When I go there, I cry. I saw bodies being brought back and when the Ducks had been offloaded, they took the wounded back to the hospital ships. I was in Europe until the end of the Battle of the Bulge.”
After leaving the Army he became a General Manager of a clothing company in Halifax making ladies’ blouses, producing 5,000 a week.
He’s been back to Normandy on various anniversaries and was keen to go back on D-Day 75 because he was so grateful to be alive, “I’m grateful that I survived and I’m sorry that so many had to die; those were the heroes.”
“I don’t think I’m a hero, the heroes are the ones who didn’t come home, and they should always be remembered. It is very emotional, of course, to remember those went and didn’t come back."
Mervyn Kersh
Mervyn was a 14-year-old evacuee when the war first broke out, joining up when he was 18 and was involved in the D-Day landings, then taking part in the Liberation of France, Belgium and Holland and the conquest of Germany. He was in the Army and became a member of the 17 Advanced Vehicle Co, 17 Advanced Ordnance Depot, ROAC.
On VE Day he was on a train back from Germany to UK to prepare for landings in Japan and hadn’t heard that the European War was over until the next day when he got off the train at Bruges.
He was sad to have missed the celebrations in London and really looks forward to getting another chance each year. When the Japanese surrendered (he likes to say that they learned he was coming), he was sent to Egypt until his demobilisation. He was then part of the Class-Z reserve and says he still checks his post each day in case he is recalled!
The Royal British Legion have worked with our inspirational veteran owned business, Icarus, to create this unique and bespoke D-Day 80 Lapel Pin.
Icarus were able to design this item to include elements of the events in June 1944 - sand from Gold Beach, Normandy, and metal shavings of the landing craft LCT 7074 used at D-Day, now fully restored and on display at The D-Day Story in Portsmouth.
We have the absolute honour of sharing four of the surviving veterans’ experiences of D-Day nearly 80 years ago whose stories are included in the leaflet accompanying the pin. At the back of the leaflet, we have included a full list of allied forces who sadly did not come home from this historical day. Lest we forget.
Due to the nature of this product’s design, there may be imperfections in the enamel.
All profits from the D-Day 80 Poppy Lapel Pin will go towards the Royal British Legion's work in supporting the Armed Forces community.
- Dimensions: 1.4cm (L) x 0.8cm (W) x 1.2cm (D)
- Materials: Enamel, Brass
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