British paratroopers who dropped into Normandy ahead of D-Day commemorations were met by French border officials.
Hundreds of soldiers jumped into the same rural drop zone which was used on D-Day 80 years ago on Wednesday.
Footage shows soldiers wearing camouflage combat gear walking towards a temporary customs check and producing their travel documents.
French security officials, who were standing behind a wooden desk with two laptops on top, then checked their passports.
Ten more members of the Paratrooper regiment could be seen on the horizon with their ‘chutes deployed gradually dropping to the ground.
Brigadier Mark Berry, the commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade, told The Sun: “It is something we haven’t experienced before.
“But given the royal welcome we have had from every other feature, it seems like a very small price to pay for coming to France.”
Brig Berry paid tribute to the 23,000 airborne troops from Britain, America, the Commonwealth and Canada who parachuted behind enemy lines in the early hours of June 6 1944.
As part of Operation Tonga, the troops were sent to destroy a gun battery and secure control of four key bridges.
They dropped into France hours before the beach landings commenced.
Brig Berry added: “The soldiers 80 years ago were jumping at night with considerably less sophisticated equipment, into enemy-held territory.
“Today I know that I won’t meet an enemy force that 80 years ago was presenting an existential threat to our nation.”
A fifth of the troops in Operation Tonga were wounded and 821 died, with Brig Berry saying it was vital to remember their sacrifice.
He added: “It is crucial, that as the last of these individuals who actually served in D-Day are beginning to move on from this earth, to remember what they achieved here.”
As commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade, the UK’s global response force, Brig Berry was the first to jump from the Royal Air Force A400M transport plane on Wednesday.
Jonathan Monti, a French immigration official, said the drop-zone post was set up to “welcome UK soldiers”.
He told The Sun: “We are doing immigration control and we are not supposed to do it in a field.
“But for this special event, for the 80th anniversary, we are welcoming the UK soldiers.”
US troops did not face similar checks as they took off from France, and Belgian troops bypassed checks because they are EU citizens.
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