THERE was pride in the tilt of their beret-crowned heads as the D-day veterans stepped out behind more than 20 regimental standards.

Those too frail to walk rode in the backs of three Army jeeps at the head of a convoy of old military vehicles as Teesside remembered its heroes.

Crowds lined the route to Redcar Cenotaph to salute those young men who sacrificed their lives - and those who survived the horror of the D-Day landings, 60 years ago.

Cleveland Police officers on horseback led the parade to the accompaniment of the force's band.

As the parade, which included a contingent of US sailors, assembled, a lone RAF helicopter hovered in salute.

How different the pageantry of the parade, held in blazing seaside sunshine, to the actual day being remembered.

Royal Scots Fusilier and D-Day veteran Ted Fagan, 84, from Redcar, recalled the sheer terror.

"The first thing I remember was the bomb dropping in the vessel taking us to the beach," he said.

"The Navy had to get all the coal out to get to the bomb. We did not land on the beach, we landed in the water, up to our chests.

"It was terrifying. You were too frightened to think about things: just looking to shoot Germans. Concentrating on keeping alive."

John Penten, 84, from Scarborough said: "The beaches had been cleared when we landed, but the guns and rockets were still blazing away. It was frightening, very frightening."

But the hot weather took its toll during yesterday's ceremony. Six standard bearers collapsed in the heat with former member of the Royal Army Medic Corps, 35-year-old Mark Doyle, stepping forward to help the bearers before the service was completed.

Four veterans and eight youngsters were given oxygen for heat exhaustion.

D-Day veteran Fred Cooper, 83, of Billingham, and Mayor of Stockton Councillor Jennie Beaumont joined to lay wreaths in Stockton, while Middlesbrough also celebrated the anniversary.