A ferry carrying Second World War veterans to France for the 80th anniversary of D-Day set sail from Portsmouth on Tuesday 4 June. Dozens were on board Brittany Ferries ship Mont St Michel, many in good spirits, though one was seen teary-eyed. The ship was accompanied by Royal Navy patrol vessels Trumpeter, Medusa and Basher as well as HMS Cattistock and the Training Ship Royalist, with tugs spraying water as it travelled out of Portsmouth Harbour. Crowds waving Union and D-Day flags gathered on the Round Tower and harbour walls in Old Portsmouth and cheered and clapped as the ferry passed, with the veterans and families smiling and waving back from the ship’s decks.