Personnel of Royal Canadian Navy Beach Commando "W" landing on Mike Beach, Juno sector of the Normandy beachhead on June 6th, 1944. (Photo via National Archives of Canada/Wikimedia)

The Kamloops Legion will be holding a ceremony Thursday evening to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day, when allied forces stormed the beaches of France to make the final push to end World War II.

Legion President Daniel Martin says it will be similar to the Remembrance Day ceremonies held each November at Riverside Park.

“O Canada will be played and sung. Following that we’ll have a little speech about the Canadian participation during World War II, especially during D Day on June 6,” Martin said, on the NL Noon Report. “After that, we’ll have the Last Post and a moment of silence, the Act of Remembrance and then we’ll have the Reveille.”

“Following that ceremony, we will go into the presentation of medals and awards.”

Martin says he is hoping there will be a few World War II veterans in attendance at the ceremony, which gets underway at 5 p.m. at the Legion branch on Lansdowne Street.

“We’re hopeful that we’ll have a couple, if not one World War II veterans, because we do have a few remaining [in Kamloops]. It would be amazing to see them at the Legion,” he said. “We always appreciate those World War II veterans coming to our events.”

Martin says Thursday’s ceremony – which will be followed by a dinner at 5:30 p.m. – is open to everyone.

“It’s extremely important for me, as a veteran myself, and all those that served in our organization, that we keep in the background, telling stories, and those that served before, tell their story, because we definitely don’t want this history to repeat itself,” noted Martin.