BRITISH war veterans were wrestling with mixed emotions yesterday after President Chirac invited the Germans to the sixtieth anniversary of the D-Day landings in France in June.

Gerhard Schröder, the Chancellor, has accepted his invitation to the commemoration, which will mark the “last hurrah” for those who took part in Operation Overlord, the greatest amphibious operation in the history of war, which led to the defeat of Nazi Germany.

More than 10,000 British ex-servicemen are expected to join the Queen, the Prime Minister, President Bush and M Chirac on the Normandy beaches where, in 1944, up to 200,000 Allied troops, 5,000 ships and 11,000 aircraft converged for the landings.

What remained uncertain last night was the degree of proposed German participation in the celebrations as painful memories are reawakened in former combatants.

The Royal British Legion expects a “vocal minority” to protest against German inclusion, while American and Canadian veterans may also be less than pleased. Major-General Peter Martin, president of the Normandy Veterans’ Association, told The Times: “I think most veterans will have mixed feelings about this. In Normandy we came mostly up against SS Panzer divisions and they were a ruthless lot.

“It’s all a long time ago now but most veterans would say, ‘It’s still with me’. I think, on the whole, most people would be happy for the Chancellor to be there but we would have decidedly mixed feelings about German veterans.”

The decision to invite the Germans was proposed by the French D-Day organising committee in Paris on which there is British military representation. It comes after a resolution in 1994 not to invite Helmut Köhl, then German Chancellor, to the fiftieth anniversary commemoration. He was said to have felt snubbed.

Herr Schröder said that he was “thrilled” by the invitation to the ceremonies.

Edwin Hannath, 83, general secretary of the National Veterans’ Association in Britain, said: “We go there as a pilgrimage, we go to remember those that we left behind.

“As long as there is no encroachment, I don’t suppose that anybody would mind. There won’t be any aggro.”

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