RETURN TO THE BEACH FEATURE: The grandmother was having dinner with her grandson in Caen on a Friday night - an unusual sight in England, but not in France.

He had just passed his examinations and she wanted to take him out to celebrate.

She had been a child on D-Day - a little younger than her grandson is now and when she saw our three veterans she broke down in tears.

"Thank you, thank you" she told them in the only English she had. But her grandson was called in as interpreter and in faultless English he explained how grateful she was to the Allies for liberating her country from the hated Allemands.

It might have been almost 60 years ago but to her it could have been yesterday.

"We owe so much to you people," she said through her grandson to Bill, Eddie and Roy.

"I cannot thank you enough for what you did and the fact so many of you died to free France."

Her town had been virtually razed to the ground by Allied bombing in an effort to destroy a German Panzer Division and many French people died in the bombing raid.

But she felt no resentment. "It was necessary to win the war," she said.

The grand lady left with her young charge, she happy to have been reunited with three men who had played a major part in her life and they with their chests bursting with pride.