MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Royal Navy in D day commemorations.

The Royal Navy is marking the 60th anniversary of the D-Day Landings by taking part in two events on Sunday 6 June, the international multi-event celebrations in France and the Plymouth Civic Memorial Service on the Hoe.

Royal Naval personnel from will be forming a ceremonial guard, accompanied by the Band of HM Royal Marines, Plymouth, for Plymouth City Council's Service of Commemoration and Thanksgiving at the Royal Naval War Memorial.

Meanwhile, the Type 22 Frigate HMS Campbeltown will be playing a significant role in the main international ceremonies in Normandy during which heads of state and up to 10,000 veterans will be taking part.

The ship will be sailing for Caen on Tuesday with an evocative passage past the Pegasus canal bridge, at which glider-borne troops played a vital part in holding up the enemy 60 years ago. On board HMS Campbeltown will be the Band of HM Royal Marines, Scotland, and 1 Assault Squadron Royal Marines. While in Normandy for the D-Day events, the ship will become the Flagship of the First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Alan West. The ship will be hosting international civilian and military VIPs, while members of the ship's company will also act as hosts at the main concert and attend other commemorative events.

The second of the Royal Navy's D-Day warships HMS Gloucester will arrive on Saturday at Ouistreham after a symbolic Channel crossing. The Type 42 destroyer will act as escort to a ferry carrying hundreds of Normandy veterans. Members of HMS Campbeltown's ship's company will welcome the veterans and attend a tree-planting ceremony at the Royal Naval memorial in Ouistreham at which a Royal Marine Band will perform.

On Sunday HMS Campbeltown's ship's company will attend the dedication of a naval memorial garden in Ouistreham laid in honour of sailors, Royal Marines and merchant seamen who died in conflict. Members of the crew will also go to Bayeux for the dedication of a Royal British Legion memorial and also to the main requiem concert in Abbaye aux Hommes, Caen, where a Royal Marine Band will perform.

4 Assault Squadron Royal Marines, also from Poole and HMS Bulwark, will be sailing separately and stage a static display of landing craft and an amphibious vehicle on the beach at Asnelles, east of Arromanches on Sunday, while HMS Gloucester and Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship RFA Wave Knight will anchor off-shore as part of the naval spectacle. (RN news)