On the morning of June 6, while Theresa May, President Macron, and elderly veterans attended the unveiling of the new British Normandy Memorial in the little village of Ver-sur-Mer, I was 20 or so miles away in the depths of the French countryside on my own – long overdue – D-Day pilgrimage.
This was to visit the Château de Fontaine-Étoupefour where my grandfather, Captain Paul Cash, of the Wessex Wyverns and Royal Artillery, had been killed in action on July 13 after winning the MC a few days before for bravery in holding a critically important defence position known as Hill 112. This vantage point between the valleys of the River Odon and Orne gave whoever commanded it a critical advantage in the battle for Caen.
