Honoured to carry his medals.

A ROYAL Air Force colonel parachuted into Normandy yesterday, clutching the medals earned by a relative who fought in D-Day 75 years ago.

Andrew Jackson, deputy commander of the Parachute Regiment's 16 Air Assault Brigade, took part in the drop yesterday.

As he landed in Sannerville, he was holding the medals earned by his wife Kate's great-uncle Lieutenant Richard Prince, who jumped in on D-Day as part of the 7th (Light Infantry) Parachute Battalion. The unit was tasked with relieving the glider troops who captured Pegasus Bridge, but he was injured a few days into the campaign and later served in Palestine and Malaya after the end of the Second World War. Col Jackson was one of the first to descend out of a Dakota before two fearless D-Day veterans aged in their 90s followed in a tandem jump.

The medals he held, earned by Lt Prince for his part in the conflict, include the 1939-1945 star, the France and Germany star for the 1944-1945 campaign, defence and victory medals, as well as a general service honour for his work in Palestine. Speaking from Le Havre Airport in Normandy before the jump, Col Jackson said: "He came in on D-Day and was wounded in action on June 17. I've got his medals with me and my father-in-law asked if I would jump them in 75 years after the owner first arrived here. It's a pleasure and honour to do that."

Harry Read, 95, and John Hutton, 94, also took part in the descent to commemorate the anniversary of the landings.

Now a retired Salvation Army officer living in Dorset, Mr Read was a 20-year-old wireless operator with the Royal Signals who had a battery the size and weight of a toolbox strapped to his right leg when he was pushed out of the plane in the early hours of June 6, 1944. Mr Hutton - known by friends as Jock - was 19 when he served in the 13th Lancashire Parachute Battalion. Among 280 paratroopers, the pair flew to Sannerville to perform the tandem jump, land- ing in fields used as a drop zone for the 8th (Midlands) Para-chute Battalion, who went on to destroy bridges in a bid to restrict German movements during Colonel the missions.

Andrew

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Colonel Andrew Jackson