Amazing moment British paratroopers are forced to show passports to French officials as they land in Normandy after historic D-Day jump

British paratroopers were met by French customs officials as they landed in Normandy to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

Footage shows the troops landing in a French field with their heavy bags, but then being forced to show their passports and documents to waiting officers.

Swarms of other paratroopers can be seen landing after jumping from a plane to commemorate the Normandy landings, as a queue forms for French customs officials.

It is a markedly different reception than that of their ancestors, who invaded northern France before the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944.

About 320 British, Belgian and American paratroopers took part in the jump, descending into a historic D-Day drop zone to recreate the events of 1944.

The 250 British paratroopers took off from RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, before jumping into the drop zone at Sannerville to commemorate the air invasion 80 years ago.

About 30 American and 40 Belgian troops also took part in the jump, although the American troops were not checked because they were already in France.

At 1:00 p.m., the paratroopers launched themselves from an Airbus A400M and landed about eight minutes later on fields near Sannerville – designated as drop zone K on 6 June 1944.

The British Army’s 16 Air Assault Brigade sent 250 paratroopers to the event, including Sergeant Danny Mawson, who wore a smock worn by D-Day paratrooper Color Sergeant Tommy Alderson.

The 8th Battalion Parachute Regiment had jumped behind enemy lines into the fields just west of Sannerville in the early hours of June 6, 1944.

Eighty years later, the paratroopers received a much warmer welcome. The Royal British Legion Band of Wales, from Llanelli, played Vera Lynn’s We’ll Meet Again as the drop began, as paratroopers filled the air.

The wind caused some to fall straight over the seated dignitaries and one had to shout at the watching crowd as he landed among them.

After landing and collecting their parachutes, they headed to a border point in the corner of a farmer’s field to show their passports.

Brigadier General Mark Berry, commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade, told the Sun: ‘It’s something we’ve never experienced before.

“But considering the royal welcome we received from every other part, it seems a very small price to pay to come to France.”

Brigadier General Berry was the first out the door of the A400M transport aircraft that delivered the first British troops.

The British paratroopers were cheered on by hundreds of spectators who gathered in the drop zone, about five miles from the sea.

French spectators shouted “thank you” and children lined up for high-fives as British troops walked past.

Brigadier General Berry paid tribute to the 23,000 airborne troops from Britain, America, Canada and other Commonwealth countries who parachuted behind enemy lines in the early hours of June 6, 1944 as part of Operation Tonga.

They landed after midnight, just hours before the beach landings began, with orders to destroy a gun battery and secure control of four important bridges, two of which they captured and two destroyed.

A fifth of the troops in Operation Tonga were injured and 821 were killed that day.

Five years ago 225 D-Day veterans traveled to Normandy for commemorations, this year there were just 23. The Royal British Legion has said that these ‘poignant commemorations will be our last opportunity to host a significant number of Normandy veterans’ .

Lance Corporal Addy Carter, 22, a medic with the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC), became the first female paratrooper to jump into Normandy when she took part in the commemorative jump.

Mrs Carter, from Hay-on-Wye, Powys, described the jump as ‘honestly amazing’. She said: ‘I didn’t know how many people would be here to watch. I am honored and fortunate to experience this.”

She added that the Normandy landings – the 13th jump of her career – had “sunk much more” the history of the D-Day paratroopers.

“We’re obviously aware of our history, but it’s incredible to be here in the same DZ (drop zone) as they were,” she told The Times.

Lieutenant Max Phillips, 25, of the 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment, followed in the footsteps of his great-great uncle Major William Tighe-Woods, who landed on Sword Beach on D-Day with the 2nd Battalion, Royal Ulster Rifles.

Major Tighe-Woods was awarded the Military Cross for leading his company in capturing a German position near Cambes, Caen, via a ‘terrible barrage of enemy mortar fire’ in which all his platoon commanders were killed or wounded.

Lieutenant Phillips, from Hexham, Northumberland, told The Times: ‘He fought quite hard until he was blown up just north of Caen and returned to Britain.’

The para, who had returned from training in Estonia last week when the opportunity to jump in Normandy arose, added: ‘I couldn’t turn it down. “I’ve never been to Normandy and to now understand what those boys went through is incredibly humbling.”