The Prince of Wales represented the British royal family at the 65th anniversary memorials in Normandy, France Saturday.
- AP
Dressed in a suit with his military medals adorning his chest, Prince Charles was at the remembrance service at a cathedral in Bayeux, where he sat with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
He then later met with the hundreds of veterans who came to Normandy, as this may be their last time commemorating this event.
Afterwards, Charles walked with Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Canadian Prime Minister Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama to the official memorial ceremony at Omaha beach, where thousands of U.S. soldiers lost their lives during the invasion of Nazi-occupied France.
There were some controversy for the past couple of weeks over whether the Queen would come to the D-Day events. What happened was the British government received an invitation from French organizers, and were free to decide on who gets to go. Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced he was going, but there was nothing from Buckingham Palace.
Turns out, Queen Elizabeth did not receive an invitation, and there was shock over the supposed snub. Even the United States tried to get involved so the Queen would attend. After all, she had driven ambulances through the streets of London while the city was being bombed.
But Prince Charles stepped in and asked his mother if he could go to settle the diplomatic dispute.
Many British veterans who came to the event had hoped Queen Elizabeth was there instead.
“It was great to see Charles over here, but I wish the Queen had come,” said an 84 year-old British veteran who came to Normandy to pay his respects to his fallen fellow soldiers.
