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Prince Charles' moving D-Day tribute

His Imperial Majestyness Prince Charles of all the Englands paid moving tribute last weekend to the thousands who died on D-Day by noting that many of those who perished 60 years ago were the same as age his his two sons, William and Harry.

He said: "It is only that way we can begin to understand the real extent of the sacrifice that was made and of the heartrending suffering of the families in this country, and in France, whose loved ones were torn away from them in the course of doing their duty."

Charles' words have a terrible resonance both for those who did indeed lose beloved children and modern parents contemplating what might have been. In Charles' case, experts have confirmed that if William and Harry had been teenagers in 1945, they would certainly have made the trip to Normandy to face the might of Hilter's armies.

We spoke to one military expert who confirmed: "Oh yes. Being royalty, they would have been first off the first landing craft in the first wave on the first day — probably dressed in hunting pink and atop a polo pony. There's no way the royal family would have allowed them to stay at home while working-class lads took all the glory."

Indeed, George V legendarily stayed at Buckingham Palace during the height of the Blitz — despite demands for his evacuation — so it seems certain that he would have dispatched the young princes off to France with alacrity.

Many ordinary Britons have welcomed Charles' apparent commitment to sacrifice his sons in the fight for freedom and democracy. "I suppose they'll be off to Baghdad, then, will they?" asked one decorated war veteran sitting eating cardboard in an unheated flat in Glasgow. "I reckon our boys could do with an injection of the old German fighting spirit," he added.

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