Nigel Farage savages France after D-Day paratroopers forced to show passports
The soldiers landed in drop zones previously used by troops taking part in Operation Tonga, a vital mission to destroy a Nazi gun battery and capture strategically important bridges.
British Paratroopers met by French Customs following D-day recreation
Nigel Farage has shared a clip of British paratroopers being forced to show their passports on arrival in France for yesterday’s D-Day commemorations.
And the Reform UK leader has contrasted the footage with the large number of boats which have already made the hazardous voyage to the UK this year.
Hundreds troops jumped into a rural drop zone which was used on D-Day 80 years ago.
However, they hit the ground, they were greeted not only by cheers from a nearby crowd but French passport officials.
The clip then shows them having their documents stamped at a desk in a field.
The irony was not lost on Mr Farage, who was in Normandy himself yesterday for a D-Day commemoration.
Sharing a clip via X, he commented: “The French Border Force stop our D-Day paratroopers, who are re-enacting, but are happy to let 4,000+ boats cross the Channel.
“Why do we pay them all this money?”
Speaking yesterday, Brigadier Mark Berry, the commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade, told The Sun: “It is something we haven’t experienced before.
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The French Border Force stop our D-Day paratroopers, who are re-enacting, but are happy to let 4,000+ boats cross the Channel. Why do we pay them all this money? https://t.co/f8MSt6h7hS
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) June 6, 2024
“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.”
He also paid tribute to the 23,000 airborne troops from Britain, America, the Commonwealth and Canada who landed behind Nazi lines in the early hours of June 6, 1944, as part of what was known as Operation Tonga.
They landed hours prior to the beach landings with a mission of destroying a gun battery and securing control of four key bridges, two of 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.”
One in five of those who took part were wounded and 821 were killed.
French onlookers shouted “thank you” and children high-fived the troops as they walked past.
Neither US troops, which took off from France and therefore were already in the country, nor Belgian ones, who were citizens of the EU, were required so show their passports.
Britons are required to do so because the UK is not a part of the EU’s Schengen free-travel area, not was that the case before Brexit in 2016.
Immigration official Jonathan Monti said: “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.”
