Unimpressed by D-day jeep couple

HISTORICAL re-enactors were all the rage in the July Connexion.

Agincourt sounds fun and of historical interest, particularly if you’ve read Juliet Barker’s wonderful book of the same name.

But I’m afraid I remained unmoved by the couple who drove a Jeep to Normandy for the 65th anniversary of D-Day.

I am always impressed by the old gentlemen who revisit the scenes of their youthful triumphs on these occasions – less so by younger people who dress up in World War Two uniforms and ride about in restored military vehicles looking frightfully stern and military.

To do this during the lifetime and sometimes in the presence of some of the men who were there seems to me to be effrontery. They are basking in the applause earned by earlier generations.

Unlike the Agincourt people, they do not re-enact anything. If the ones from the UK, of whom we see a number here in Normandy, came ashore seasick and terrified from landing craft instead of driving off the ferry with all the other tourists, it would be something.

Barry Smith
Colomby, Manche