During the first few days of August 1944, various beachheads were established by the Allied Forces along the coastline of Provence and the South of France, and so began some of the most heroic landings in history to liberate France from its tyrannical Nazi oppressor. Today these valiant soldiers were remembered in ceremonies held throughout France and up and down the French Riviera, and even in tiny local villages like Opio, Le Rouret and Chateauneuf-de-Grasse who were liberated on the 24th August.

Participating today were both civil and military authorities, a small detachment from the 943 airbase and the few remaining survivors and their families of this terrible era.

My father took part in the Second World War and so I can relate to this momentous event as he often spoke of these years that robbed him of his youth. However, in a lighter tone, he did meet my mother (Belgian), fell head-over-heels in love and married her in 1947.  Thus out of the years of immense suffering and terrible darkness something positive was to be had as love and peace finally came to war-torn nations. I would like to think that this will be so for others facing much the same ordeals today.