A VETERAN care village marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day with a 1940s-themed party for residents, civic dignitaries and serving military personnel.
Among the residents attending the event at Broughton House in Salford was 100-year-old D-Day veteran Peter Belcher, who served in the forces from 1937 until 1949.
In June 1944 he was a corporal in the 2nd Battalion Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, 6th Airborne Division.
On D-Day its role was to capture and defend bridges over the River Orne and Caen Canal in Normandy – the latter was later known as Pegasus Bridge – to help protect the eastern flank for those landing on Sword Beach.
Other World War Two veterans at the party were Joe Jervis, aged 100, who served in the RAF, Cliff Butterworth, aged 98, who enlisted in the Royal Navy as a volunteer in 1942 when he was 17, and George Evans, also 98, who served in the Corps of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.
Jim Belcher, 98, joined the Royal Marines at 18 and on D-Day served on HMS Glenroy, which was one of the first ships to arrive at Gold Beach. He was part of a four-man crew on a landing craft responsible for dropping off troops from the Special Boat Squadron so they could access the beach.
Jim was able to travel to Normandy for the D-Day commemorations, accompanied by Broughton House’s director of care Jane Green and five other veterans.