NORMANDY veterans from York are taking a break this year from their traditional D-Day visit to France – instead they will travel in August to the battlefields of Holland and Belgium.

Cyril Haworth, chairman of the York branch of the Normandy Veterans Association (NVA), said they would be visiting sites they passed through in the months after the D-Day landings.

He said the traditional focus around the anniversary of D-Day was on the fighting and deaths of many soldiers as they landed in Normandy, but there were also heavy losses in other battles over subsequent months – at Wuustwezel, in Belgium, for example – which should not be forgotten either.

He said 14 former soldiers and their wives and carers, along with the widows of four veterans, most of them now in their late 80s and early 90s, would be going on the trip.

A military historian, Paul Reed, was carrying out research to prepare a comprehensive itinerary for the journey.

The veterans normally go to Bayeux Cathedral for a service to mark the anniversary of D-Day.

But Captain Haworth said the switch of the trip to August meant the veterans would be in York for the 67th anniversary.

He said there would be a service at York Minster at 1.40 pm on Sunday, June 5, followed by a service and laying of a wreath at the Normandy memorial in the Memorial Gardens at 10.45 the following day.

Meanwhile, he said the branch was intending to provide a guard of honour at the funeral at York Crematorium at 1.30pm today of Christa Rowbotham, the wife of veteran Royce Rowbotham.

Mr Haworth said Christa had always been very supportive of Royce in his involvement in the association.