WWII veterans share Normandy memories with Churchill's great-great-grandson

BBC One has reported on a meeting between two Second World War veterans and Winston Churchill's 12-year-old great-great-grandson ahead of Remembrance Sunday.

The BBC One report said Alexander Churchill met Richard Brock, 102, and Stewart Taylor, 103. It said their conversation was arranged by the Lancashire Infantry Museum and the British Normandy Memorial.

According to the report, Brock served as a young soldier with the First Battalion of the East Lancashire Regiment. He heard Churchill's "We shall fight on the beaches" speech before going to Normandy. Taylor served with the RAF as the Allies pushed towards victory.

BBC One reported that Alexander asked the men about their crossing to Normandy, the moment they saw the beaches, the comrades they lost and the part they played in the liberation of Europe. One veteran told him that 127 pupils from his school never returned. The same veteran said 130 men served in his company, 19 survived and he was the last of the 19.

In the same report, one of the veterans described approaching Belsen concentration camp. He said the smell was atrocious and he would never forget it. Asked what message they wanted to leave to Alexander's generation, one veteran called for peace. "Talk peace not war," he said.

Alexander said the encounter had been "really moving". He added: "Nothing good ever comes from war." He said people should learn from it. BBC One said the veterans' hope was that his generation would never have to serve as they did.