JIM Malcolm was 18 when he flew his glider into the blaze and fire of D-Day. "I just remember getting on with what had to be done," he said.

The rest of us can only marvel at how his generation did what had to be done. They sailed, flew and ran into a barrage of enemy fire. They put a cause before their own lives.

Our own concerns appear trivial before the sacrifice of these young men. And how young they were: even 60 years on, hundreds of D-Day heroes were able to return for the Normandy commemorations.

Now they are in their 70s and 80s, and this is the last major anniversary many will attend. The day will come when we depend entirely on newsreel and history books, as vivid personal testimony of the Allied landings fades for ever.

That is an irreplaceable loss. Those of us who were not there will never truly know what D-Day was like. But the accounts of veterans in the Evening Press and elsewhere take us closer.

With dignified eloquence, old soldiers and others have revealed some of the fear, excitement, bravery and obscenity of war.

It is a truth we need to be told. If we are ever to know peace, we must know war. These veterans have entrusted us with their stories not for self-glory, but to ensure mistakes of the past are not repeated. It is up to us to keep that memory alive, and impress on future generations the sacrifice of men they will never know.

Soldiers on D-Day did their duty. Now we must do ours.

Updated: 11:07 Monday, June 07, 2004