Horror as cenotaph in UK village torn apart by yobs and set on fire hours before D-Day
Vandals toppled the structure in Long Ashton, Somerset, with police now appealing for information.
Vandals wrecked a temporary D-Day cenotaph and tried to set it on fire just hours before 80th anniversary commemorations for the historic Normandy landings.
The structure in Long Ashton, Somerset, was toppled and damaged with a flagpole just hours after it had been put up.
Dave Addis, the secretary of the village's Royal British Legion branch, said people had been left "pretty upset" by the attack, with Avon and Somerset Police now appealing for any witnesses to come forward.
Mr Addis told the BBC: "They picked up what was to become our flagpole and used it to lever the war memorial down, and that was when they failed to set light to it.
"We won't do anything until tomorrow now. The main event will continue tomorrow, but it might not be with all the facilities we had in mind."
Mr Addis and his team were meant to spend Wednesday preparing for a D-Day anniversary event in Andrée Peel Park, but now fear more damage will be inflicted overnight.
Police think the damage was inflicted between 8pm on Tuesday, June 4 and 8am Wednesday, June 5.
PC James Coglan, from Avon and Somerset Police, said: "We fully appreciate the sensitivity around this incident, particularly given the timing, and will be conducting a thorough investigation.
"Inquiries to identify those responsible are ongoing and we would encourage anyone who has any information to contact us."
Anyone with information about the incident should call police on 101 and quote reference 5224144301.
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D-Day events have been occurring across Europe today to mark 80 years since the Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy in what would become the largest seaborne invasion in history.
The landings happened on June 6 1944 and laid the groundwork for the Allied victory on the Western Front by liberating France from the Germans.
In France, hundreds of paratroopers have landed in Normandy to recreate the historic landings. And in the UK, Rishi Sunak and members of the Royal Family travelled to Portsmouth to meet veterans and give speeches to mark the occasion.
World War 2 veterans today joined heads of state and otherstoday on the beaches of Normandy to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
The Allied invasion, officially known as Operation Overlord, led to the defeat of the Nazis and the end of the war. The assault began with Allied aircraft bombing German defences in Normandy, followed by around 1,200 aircraft that carried airborne troops.
As dawn broke, Allied forces started bombing German coastal defenses and shortly after that vessels began putting troops ashore on five codenamed beaches: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. By the end of the day, nearly 160,000 Allied troops had landed in Normandy, although there were thousands of casualties.
Few witnesses to history’s biggest amphibious invasion remain alive today.
