Manchester Airport has officially opened a new-look memorial garden as part of its commemorations of the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
The memorial garden, which is located between Terminal One and the Olympic House office building, has been given a £15,000 renovation over the past few months – with the addition of a Spitfire statue, picnic benches, and a poppy garden, which will be in full bloom by late summer.
The new additions to the garden sit alongside the already-established memorials to service personnel who were stationed at Manchester Airport during World War II and in the years that followed. In its previous guise as RAF Ringway, Manchester Airport was the wartime base for the No. 1 Parachute Training School RAF, which provided initial training to all 60,000 Allied paratroopers who took part in the Normandy Landings. It also helped develop new technology which supported parachute drops of equipment and military gliding operations.
On hand to open the garden was 101-year-old Glider Pilot Regiment veteran, Peter Davies. Peter, from Bollington in Cheshire, was part of a liaison team who assisted the US 82nd Airborne Division in their preparations for D-Day. Peter also piloted Hamilcar gliders and was part of Operation Varsity in March 1945, carrying military equipment including tanks and depositing them behind enemy lines, as Allied forces pushed into Germany. Many years later, Peter helped raise funds for a dedicated memorial to his regiment at Manchester Airport, which was unveiled in 1997 and still takes pride of place in the new-look memorial garden. Peter joined Manchester Airport Chief Operating Officer, Pete Lederer, in cutting the ribbon ahead of the D-Day memorial service.
“Manchester Airport has been at the heart of the local community for more than 85 years and we are proud of the role the airport has played, and continues to play, in serving the community. Our wartime history is a key part of that story and the newly renovated memorial garden is a fitting tribute to the sacrifices made by the brave servicemen and women who were stationed here. It was an honour to be joined by Second World War veteran Peter Davies to officially open the garden today.” said Pete Lederer, Chief Operating Officer at the Airport
