CRACK British paras who jumped into Normandy were greeted by French customs yesterday.
Hundreds of soldiers jumped into a rural drop zone used on D-Day 80 years ago.
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Instead of meeting German guns – as their forebears did in darkness – the Brits were faced with French passport control and cheers from nearby crowds.
Border guards set up a customs post in the corner of a field and stamped every UK soldier in.
Brigadier Mark Berry, the commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade, said: “It is something we haven’t experienced before.
“But given the Royal welcome we have had from every other feature, it seems like a very small price to pay for coming to France.”
Brig Berry paid tribute to the 23,000 airborne troops from Britain, America, the Commonwealth and Canada who parachutes and gliders to swoop behind Nazi lines in the early hours of June 6, 1944, as part of Operation Tonga.
They landed after midnight – but hours before the beach landings started with orders to destroy a gun battery and secure control of four key bridges, two which they captured and two they destroyed.
Brig Berry added: “The soldiers 80 years ago were jumping at night with considerably less sophisticated equipment, into enemy held territory.
“Today I know that I won’t meet an enemy force that 80 years ago was presenting an existential threat to our nation.”
A fifth of the troops in Op Tonga were wounded and 821 died.
Brig Berry said it was vital we remember their achievements as so few veterans are still alive.
He added: “It is crucial, that as the last of these individuals who actually served in D-Day are beginning to move on from this earth, to remember what they achieved here.”
As commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade – the UK’s global response force – Brig Berry was first out the door of the Royal Air Force A400M transport plane that delivered the first UK troops.
His troops where cheered by hundreds of spectators who lined the edge of the drop zone at Sannerville, around five miles from the sea.
French onlookers shouted “thank you” and children lined up for high-fives as the paras walked past.
US and Belgian troops who jumped alongside the paras were not required to check in with French immigration control.
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The US troops took off from France, so were already inside the country.
The Belgian troops are EU citizens and bypass border checks.
Immigration boss Jonathan Monti said the drop-zone post was set up to “welcome UK soldiers”.
He told The Sun: “We are doing immigration control and we are not supposed to do it in a field.
“But for this special event, for the 80th anniversary, we are welcoming the UK soldiers.”
What happened on D-Day?
JUNE 6, 2024 marks 80 years since the largest military naval, air, and land operation in history – and the start of the liberation of Western Europe.
But what exactly happened on D-Day?
Tens of thousands of troops from the UK, the US, Canada, and France attacked German forces on the coast of northern France on June 6, 1944.
They stormed five separate beaches in Normandy.
It was the start of the Allied invasion of Normandy – the greatest seaborne invasion ever attempted – and marked the beginning of the campaign to liberate Nazi-occupied north-west Europe.
The “D” in D-Day stands for “day”.
D-Day is a military term used to describe the first day of any large military operation.
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