Donald Trump and world leaders are attending the National Commemorative Event for the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings.
The US President joins more than 300 D-Day veterans at the ceremony to finish his UK state visit.
Trump, accompanied by his wife First Lady Melania, is present with several other world leaders and royalty at the Portsmouth Naval Memorial in the coastal Hampshire town.
But the world leader has today spared fury after branding hospitals in the UK as "a sea of blood" .
More than 60,000 members of the public are believed to be in attendance.
One veteran, Alfred Fuzzard, 97, was a petty officer in the Royal Navy during the Normandy landings.
He was on Landing Craft 30 and left Portsmouth at 2pm on the day before D-Day, carrying Royal Marines and sailors on board.
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"I wouldn't have missed D-Day for the world," the pensioner, from Bexhill, East Sussex, said.
"It was a bit rough going over but it calmed down when we got near the beach.
"The RAF had carpet bombed the beaches before we got there. "We had rocket ships behind us - we could hear the shells going over the top of us."
Describing the emotional moments he prepared a dead serviceman for a sea burial, he said: "I wanted him to be sent home. But they said 'there's too many of them'.
"He had a picture of his wife, his two children. There was me sewing him up ready for burial the next day.
"I feel it now. I can just see the picture all the time, every time I think about it."
Among the world leaders representing the Allied nations who took part in the D-Day landings present, include French president Emmanuel Macron and prime minister of Canada Justin Trudeau.
Other guests included Australia's prime minister Scott Morrison, prime minister Charles Michel from Belgium, the Czech Republic's prime minister Andrej Babis and president Prokopis Pavlopoulos from Greece. Chancellor Angela Merkel represented Germany.
They all met the Queen before the event began - a first for Mr Macron - and then posed for a group photograph with the monarch and Prince of Wales.
The audience watched three veterans sharing their testimonies of D-Day in a pre-recorded video displayed on large screens.
Bert Edwards, a British veteran who served as an Able Seaman on HMS Bellona spoke of provided firing support to Omaha beach from the ship.
He said he was not nervous on the day just "apprehensive" adding: "At the time we had no idea it was as vicious as it was."
Canadian veteran Bob Roberts also spoke, he was a lance corporal in the North Shore (New Brunswick) Regiment and was among the first to land on Normandy's Juno beach on June 6.
American Eugene Deibler shared his memories of serving as a sergeant with the 501st Airborne Regiment and parachuting into Normandy at 1.30am on June 6, behind Utah beach.
As the event got under way a group of veterans came onto the event's large stage and were given a standing ovation.
Trump's second UK state visit in as many years has been met with outrage by tens of thousands of anti-Trump protesters.
And further demos are expected when the politician reaches Shannon Airport, Ireland, after his flight from Southampton.
He'll get to Ireland at 4.50pm and then meet Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, the country's Minister for Defence.
Yesterday, one protester, student Ella Johnson said she was at the protest because as a "gay woman she needed to stand up to hate".
Speaking along Whitehall, the 24-year-old said: "We can’t have him here with his views that would strip women, people of colour and immigrants of their human dignity.
"It is a disgrace he is here.
"Anyone who facilitated will have a debt to cleanse on their soul".
But one Donald Trump supporter had a milkshake thrown at him during the protest.
