King Charles at a ceremony in Normandy to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day (Image: Getty)
King Charles “definitely” wants to be in France to fulfil his duty on the 80th anniversary of D-Day in June.
The monarch has made it a personal mission to honour fallen Second World War warriors at a major ceremony, just like his late mother five years ago.
Former Royal Navy officer Charles wants to pay his respects at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer which honours the lionhearts who perished during the mighty air and sea invasion that started on June 6, 1944.
His almost-certain visit on the landmark anniversary, a defining date in history, will be his first major public appearance since he revealed he was battling cancer.
Dickie Arbiter, the late Queen’s spokesman, told the Daily Express: “It’s too much of a big one to miss as it will be the last major anniversary where veterans take part.
“The memorial honours soldiers who served Britain and the Commonwealth and it is incredibly important. He will definitely want to be there.”
Charles is currently undergoing weekly treatment for a “form of cancer”. He was diagnosed after a hospital operation for an enlarged prostate in the New Year.
He was discharged on January 29, but only made news of his diagnosis public on February 5.
The late Queen at a D-Day anniversary ceremony in Portsmouth (Image: Getty)
The workaholic monarch, 75, has since postponed all public duties, but is toiling behind-the-scenes on red boxes of state papers and has adopted a business as usual mentality, despite stepping back from work.
This year’s momentous milestone is deeply significant and personally poignant to Charles given his family’s indelible links to the Armed Forces. He sees his presence at the very spot where tens of thousands of young soldiers landed amid a volley of hellfire and fury eight decades ago as a duty that must be honoured.
Although Buckingham Palace declined to comment, Mr Arbiter said: “Charles seemed in good spirits on an impromptu walkabout after the Easter service at St George’s Chapel and D-Day is six weeks away. I would like to say yes, he will be there, and will go to great lengths to make sure he is.
“Obviously having [cancer] treatment does take it out of you but he will be aware of performing his constitutional duty and I would be very surprised if he wasn’t in Normandy.
“This will be the big one and Charles will know how important it is to commemorate the 80th anniversary. Sadly, there are not many veterans left, so he will most definitely want to be there and would be greatly disappointed if he wasn’t. I would say he will. Of course, any decision has to be made on medical advice.”
On the 75th anniversary of the invasion in 2019 Charles, as Prince of Wales, accompanied his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, then 91, to commemorations in Portsmouth, from where much of the naval armada left for Normandy during the reign of her father, George VI.
She made a deeply moving speech, saying: “The wartime generation – my generation – is resilient. It is with humility and pleasure, on behalf of the entire country – indeed the whole free world – that I say to you all, thank you.” It was one of the last major public events before she died in September 2022, aged 96.
D-Day saw 156,000 soldiers from Britain, the Commonwealth, America and their allies land on five beaches along the Normandy coast codenamed Gold, Sword, Omaha, Juno and Utah.
King Charles has always enjoyed meeting Britain’s war heroes (Image: Getty)
Few expected the mission to succeed but it launched the invasion of German-occupied France and Western Europe and hastened the end of the Second World War.
The names of 22,442 men who gave their lives under British command during the landings are etched on the memorial’s limestone flagstones towering above the clifftops overlooking Gold Beach, scene of some of the heaviest bloodletting.
Both King George VI and Winston Churchill wanted to observe the landings on one of the Royal Navy ships, but the real possibility of a bomb, torpedo or mine striking a vessel, and killing them both, put paid to that.
Instead the King gave a stirring speech, saying: “Now once more a supreme test has to be faced. This time, the challenge is not to fight to survive but to fight to win the final victory for the good cause.
“Once again what is demanded from us all is something more than courage and endurance; we need a revival of spirit, a new unconquerable resolve.
“After nearly five years of toil and suffering, we must renew that crusading impulse on which we entered the war and met its darkest hour. We and our Allies are sure that our fight is against evil and for a world in which goodness and honour may be the foundation of the life of men in every land.”
On June 6 this year global leaders including Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Premier Justin Trudeau, Polish PM Donald Tusk and his German counterpart Olaf Scholz will gather at the memorial to honour those who fell on D-Day and the subsequent Battle of Normandy in the weeks and months after.
One of the heroes hoping to be in Normandy is Jack Mortimer, 100, who was just 20 when he landed with 12 Ordnance Beach detachment.
He said: “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 firing over our heads, rockets flying over, hundreds of them. 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.
King Charles is said to have made it his personal mission to attend the ceremony (Image: Getty)
“When I go there, I cry. I’m grateful I survived and I’m sorry so many had to die. I don’t think I’m a hero, the heroes are the ones who didn’t come home, and they should always be remembered.”
Taking on his late mother’s duties Charles is now head of the Armed Forces and head of state, Colonel-in-Chief of The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, The Royal Tank Regiment and The Royal Regiment of Scotland, Captain General of both The Royal Artillery and The Honourable Artillery Company and Air Commodore-in-Chief of RAF Regiment.
His eldest son William, Prince of Wales, is Colonel-in-Chief of The Army Air Corps, and also expected to attend commemorations in Normandy.
The King’s selfless devotion to duty is driven by a desire to emulate his mother, the last serving head of state in uniform during the Second World War and on D-Day.
During the 1939-45 conflict Charles’s father Prince Philip, who died aged 99 in 2021, served aboard HMS Valiant in the Battle of the Mediterranean and the destroyer HMS Wallace during the Allied invasion of Sicily. Queen Camilla’s father, Major Bruce Shand, served at the Battle of El Alamein in North Africa in 1942 and passed away in 2006 aged 89.
Charles earned his RAF wings in 1971 before embarking on a naval career in which he served on the guided-missile destroyer HMS Norfolk and frigates HMS Minerva and HMS Jupiter. He also qualified as a helicopter pilot at RNAS Yeovilton and subsequently joined 845 Naval Air Squadron, operating from HMS Hermes.
He spent his last months of active service commanding the coastal minehunter HMS Bronington and was appointed colonel-in-chief of the Parachute Regiment in 1977.
It was initially thought Charles’s first major overseas trip this year would be a state visit to Australia, also taking in neighbouring New Zealand, to coincide with the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa. It would be his first royal visit Down Under as sovereign and by a British monarch since 2011.
Queen Camilla, 76, has been a source of enormous comfort and strength for Charles during his temporary withdrawal from public life and is continuing with her own diary of commitments as well as single-handedly taking on those that were due to have been joint events.
She will join her husband on the trip if it goes ahead, as planned, in October.
