PREPARATIONS are under way in Oxfordshire to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day.

Veterans will gather tomorrow to pay tribute to Major John Howard, who masterminded the daring glider raid on Pegasus Bridge for soldiers in the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944.

READ AGAIN: Veterans will pay tribute to Major John Howard who led daring Pegasus Bridge glider raid

And there will be a series of commemorative events tonight at Harwell Campus, from 6.30pm to 9.30pm, including a vintage plane flypast, a military vehicle display, and a series of D-Day talks.

Veterans will attend, together with members of the RAF 38 Group who were based at Harwell during the war.

Oxford Mail:

The wreath-laying ceremony for Major Howard, at his grave in Clifton Hampden, near Abingdon, first took place in 2014 to mark the 70th anniversary of the Normandy landings.

Major Howard retired to Burcot near Abingdon after the war with his wife Joy, and following his death, aged 86 in 1999, was buried at St Michael and All Angels Church in Clifton Hampden.

Oxford Mail:

Veterans from the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry will gather for the sixth year running, at St Michael and All Angels Church, to remember the former Oxford city policeman who led 2nd Battalion D Company to secure two bridges over the Caen Canal.

Wreaths will be laid by the Oxford branch of the Royal Green Jackets Association, at Major Howard’s grave and a service will be conducted at the graveside.

Oxford Mail:

Terry Roper, chairman of the Oxford branch of the association, said: “These men were the first allied troops to land on D-Day, inserted by glider landing at 16 minutes past midnight to seize the bridge."