PRINCE Charles met several D-Day veterans yesterday at the iconic Pegasus Bridge where Allied soldiers landed in the dead of night exactly 70 years ago.

After laying a wreath at the exact spot where one of the six gliders landed at 16 minutes past midnight on June 6, 1944, the prince met veterans and their families.

None of the men who took part in the operation to capture the vital river crossings over the River Orne and the Caen Canal are alive today, but the prince spoke with men who flew into nearby Ranville or took part in other operations on D-Day.

At home, the Princess Royal led tributes to the heroes who took part and the many who died in the D-Day landings, at the main ceremony in the UK to mark the 70th anniversary of the Normandy invasion.

Princess Anne, commodore in chief of the Royal Navy in the Portsmouth area, attended a drumhead service on Southsea Common, Portsmouth, with more than 200 veterans and military personnel, including 80 Normandy veterans and representatives from the armed forces of the UK, Canada and France.

Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama, speaking in Brussels alongside Prime Minister David Cameron, hailed the “great alliance” between Britain and America as he paid tribute to the soldiers from the two countries who fought side by side on D-Day.

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