The tide was out at Sword beach yesterday but, for the veterans on the sand the memories came flooding back.

In the early morning sunshine, three veterans made a pilgrimage to the beach where masses of young British troops were cut down by German steel, exactly 60 years ago.

Then, the sand was blood soaked, the beach littered with dead and dying, some of the 1,500 British troops killed on D-Day - many in the first hour.

Yesterday, the sand was a sea of small Union Flags, 70,000 of them. Each had handwritten tributes on the back, thanking the heroes of D-Day.

The flag tribute, organised by the Royal British Legion, will raise £1m for their work helping soldiers.

One of the veterans, Fred Matthews, 79, stood reading the messages, tears in his eyes, flanked by his son Chris, 35, and his 12-year-old grandson, Lee, all from Poole, Dorset.

"Thank you for liberating us - a French woman," one message read. "We are here now because you were there then," said another.

Mr Matthews said: "It means a lot to me. I have not really talked about it to them, but this 60th anniversary has brought it all back.

"The messages were very, very touching. "

Sixty years ago, Mr Matthews was a 19-year-old able seaman aboard the minesweeper, HMS Jude.

Two miles out to sea, he could see the carnage on the beach.

"The assault troops, they are the ones that deserve the praise, the real heroes. They gave their lives," he said.

"I always remember, a few days after we anchored, the bodies that passed the ship. They were only young lads.

"You never forget. It's impressed on your mind. It never leaves you. I sometimes forget what I did last week, but I never forget 60 years ago," he said.

Bill Stoneman, 80, was also on the beach yesterday. As a 20-year-old rear-gunner in a Halifax bomber, he flew over France, setting off from RAF Tempsford, in Bedfordshire.

They dropped French and British secret agents into Normandy, to "cause mayhem", he said as the invasion began.

The bomber, part of 138 RAF Squadron, also dropped hundreds of "Ruperts", dummy paratroopers to confuse the enemy.

Back on foreign soil yesterday, Mr Stoneman, from Newquay, Cornwall, was moved after viewing the flags.

"They were telling you, you were very brave, but I felt quite vulnerable at the time," he said.

For Raymond Daeche, 80, the D-Day memories on Sword beach were also bittersweet.

Mr Daeche landed at Pegasus Bridge with 195 Glider Landing, Field Ambulance - and saw his friend die within seconds.

"I got out of the glider and the first thing I noticed, lying on the grass was the body of a good friend, Private Leonard Worgan.

"On the same morning in England I was playing football with him before we were off, the same day he was lying dead in France."

Private Worgan was buried in Ranville Cemetery, Normandy, which Mr Daeche had visited, "to see all my mates".

Mr Daeche, from Harlow in Essex, spoke of his reception at Pegasus Bridge on Saturday: "We marched across the bridge with other veterans. The French were kissing me on the cheek, putting glasses of champagne in my hand, cheering, grabbing me, shouting 'Tommy, Tommy, Tommy.' It was overwhelming'."