D-Day plaques

As part of the D-Day 75 commemorations, the council has created plaques to honour the 119 men from the city who died between the invasion of France and the end of the Battle of Normandy.

The plaques have been put up in the streets where the men lived before they departed for France, and they are reproduced here.

The campaign started with the launch of Operation Overlord on 6 June 1944  – D-Day – and continued until 31 August 1944 with the Battle of Normandy and the liberation of Paris after the allies had crossed the Seine.

The Portsmouth men honoured on our plaques are from all branches of the armed forces – the Royal Navy, the Army and the Royal Air Force – as well as the Merchant Navy.

They range in age from 16-year-old Private Robert Johns, who served with the Parachute Regiment, to 47-year-old Warrant Engineer William Smith who was killed when HMS Mourne was torpedoed.

The 119 men were killed at a rate of more than one a day during the length of the campaign – a similar rate to battles like the Somme and Passchendaele during the First World War.