Commemorations for the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings began on Thursday with a military piper playing a lament at sea at the exact moment of the beach invasion in France in 1944.

At dawn eight decades after Allied troops came ashore under gunfire on five code-named beaches in Normandy — Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword — the day of remembrance started.

Later, the King paid tribute to veterans at a national commemorative event in Normandy.

At Gold Beach in Arromanches, Major Trevor Macey-Lillie paid tribute to fallen veterans by playing Highland Laddie as he came ashore.