At the heart of the Sword Beach landing area near the port town of Ouistreham you can find this impressive memorial monument to the British and French commandos who landed here on D-Day.
Established 50 years on from June 6, 1944, and designed by artist Yvonne Guegan to look like an eternal flame, the monument stands atop a six-embrasure armoured cupola which was part of a R644 turret bunker at German strongpoint Wn10 Riva Bella to the west of the port.
On the flame are the names of 177 French commandos who took part in the landings and surrounding it are 10 small memorials bearing the names of those who fell during the battle to liberate this part of their homeland.
The memorial is watched over by statues of two legendary figures. One is of Commander Philippe Kieffer who led his men into battle in this area and that of British commando leader Lord Lovatt who landed nearby and took his men all the way down to Pegasus Bridge to link up with glider-borne British forces. They were piped along the way by Bill Millin, to whom there is also a statue further west of this position at Colleville-Montgomery.