Ref. 25586-54Roy Mann, pictured here at Gold Beach, paid an emotional visit with two other D-Day veterans to Normandy, thanks to a special trip organised by the Evening Advertiser.

The guns have long been silent over the beaches of Normandy but still the tears flow. Thousands of young men died there to free a fascist Europe and their graves are a poignant memory in this part of France. We took three survivors back to relive their D-Day memories from June 6, 1944 and in a four part special LEIGH ROBINSON tells their stories. How they lived while many of their friends died is a moving story. Part One is today and we will tell their individual accounts on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Pictures: DAVE EVANS

D-Day, the sixth of June 1944 is a date in English history comparable only with 1066.

More people can recite it rather than V-E Day, (May 8, 1945) when the war actually ended in Europe.

For Bill Higgs, Roy Mann and Eddie Brown, three Swindon veterans of the Second World War, going back to France was no real holiday.

For them it was an act of tribute to their many colleagues who died fighting for the freedom which we enjoy today.

It was a harrowing experience, especially for Bill who had fought at Pegasus Bridge, been wounded at Arnhem and spent 12 months in a German PoW camp. Mental scars and memories from almost 60 years ago easily came back to the surface.

But it was a friendly invasion of France this time and the journey back was somewhat different. No night time flying or aboard flimsy boats on choppy seas but the relative comfort of a coach via the Channel Tunnel.

This link with mainland Europe has become a source of pride for both English and French engineers. But had history turned a little the wrong way it would have been built more than 40 years ago by slave labour and our respective populations would be speaking German as a first language.

The journey through the tunnel is quick and efficient and soon you're speeding through northern France, not much faster than Rommel's tanks travelled when the Germans got to the Channel ports back in 1940. Normandy is a four hour ride from Calais by coach and we were led south by a retired army colonel attached to the British Legion whose surreal choice of entertainment was to show the film The Longest Day on the coach video.

Our accommodation for three nights was in Caen, a city which had been virtually destroyed by Allied bombers in an attempt to destroy a German Panzer Division. Rebuilt it is now both clean and fresh.

Pegasus Bridge is a landmark in the D-Day invasion. It was vital that the Allies capture it intact which they did and the Cafe Gondree, still run by the same family, became the first house in France to be liberated.

Bill was able to meet Arlette Gondree again. She was a little girl on D-Day and Bill remembers her peeping through the shutters of her father's cafe after the gliders landed with Bill at the helm of one of them.

We had coffee at the cafe courtesy of Arlette and Bill became the unofficial guide to our group as he explained what happened here at the Bridge back in 1944.

We saw Gold and Sword beaches where the Brits got ashore quite easily and then on to Omaha where the Americans were slaughtered.

One of the most beautiful places anywhere in the world is the American cemetery above Omaha beach where all the graves point westward back home to the USA. Almost 10,000 are buried here in perfect symmetry and when we were there at the foot of each grave was a single rose there to mark Independence Day.

At Arromanches we saw the Mulberry miracle the artificial port which was brought in to supply the troops when they had established a beach head, the British cemetery at Bayeux and even a German cemetery which has now been established as a Peace Museum perfectly understandable.

After all when you have killed around 30 million people around the world you can't have a normal memorial to your soldiers, so peace it has to be.

Bill, who lives in Wroughton, is now 83; Roy from Stratton and Eddie from Wootton Bassett are both 79 but for them the visit was tinged with memories and time was set aside for their own remembrance.

Tomorrow we will tell you Bill's story. This is about a man who should have died a long time ago but he is still as fit as a flea.