'Where's your bloody tie?' Prince Harry gets a dressing down from D-Day veteran after joining a Normandy reunion in an open-necked shirt 

Prince Harry was ticked off by a D-Day veteran tonight for not wearing a tie to meet war heroes.

The fifth in line to the throne wore a blue suit and open necked shirt to meet a group of 45 veterans dressed in their best blazers, ties, medals, and berets to go on their annual pilgrimage to the Normandy beaches.

Harry, 31, a former Army captain, had already confessed to senior officers that he was embarrassed and felt under-dressed when he arrived to meet the group at Southwick House near Portsmouth, General Dwight D Eisenhower's advanced headquarters for the landings.

Prince Harry greets Ivor Anderson as he attends a reception for Normandy Veterans at Southwick House on June 2, 2016 in Portsmouth, England. The veteran couldn't wisecracking, 'where's your bloody tie?'

Harry met John Dennett (left) and Frank Diffell (right) in the Map Room of Southwick House, Portsmouth

D-Day Revisited organises the reunion for the veterans of the Normandy campaign and funds their annual pilgrimage to the beaches where they fought in 1944

Harry talked to 92-year-old Anthony Colgan who took part in the D-Day Landings in 1944

But when one veteran in a wheelchair, Ivor Anderson, spotted him he could not resist a wisecrack at the Prince's expense. 'Where's your bloody tie?' he asked.

'I know. I was told not to wear a tie and then you all turn up wearing them,' a slightly crestfallen Harry replied. 'I feel under-dressed.'

Mr Anderson, 91, a former sapper in 591 Para Squadron Royal Engineers who parachuted into Normandy, landing near Ranville, the first village liberated, had only meant it as a joke.

Mr Anderson, from Salford, Manchester, said: 'I told him he should wear a bloody tie. I said I had a spare one, he said he couldn't wear mine because he didn't have his wings.'

But when he arrived, the Prince had shown his discomfort, telling John Philips, chairman of the charity D-Day Revisited: 'I should have worn a tie. Oh well, it's too late now.'

The royal met the military veterans who took part in the D-Day landings, on the eve their annual pilgrimage to Normandy. 

Mr Anderson, who spent 20 years working as a wireroom technician at the Daily Express in Manchester from 1956 and lives in Salford, was making his fourth return trip to the D-Day beaches.

Harry told some of the veterans he had been sailing before the official engagement this evening

Harry talked to those who took part in the D-Day Landings ahead of their annual pilgrimage to Normandy

The veterans remember the Normandy Landings - the largest seaborne operation in history - that took place on June 6, 1944 

Like others in the group, he has been helped by D-Day Revisited, which picked the veterans up from all over the country and took them by coach to Portsmouth for a dinner tonight before crossing the Channel to pay tribute to their fallen comrades.

'The first time I went back over was about 1950 on a motorbike,' said Mr Anderson, who is confined to a wheelchair after a number of hip operations. 'It's very sad at times. Especially now because all of my unit are gone. They're all dead,' he said.

Harry, who spent around 45 minutes talking to the veterans, had spent the day 'privately' in Portsmouth before meeting them at Southwick House.

Royal Navy veterans Frank Diffell and John Dennett, who both served on landing craft, posed for pictures with him in the room where Eisenhower plotted the invasion

He listened intently to John Dennett and Frank Diffell in the Map Room in the building used by General Dwight D Eisenhower as  his advanced headquarters for the landings

Aides declined to say what he had been doing but some veterans said he told them he had been sailing.

Prince Harry talked to veterans in the Map Room to hear their first-hand accounts of the landings and to see where the battles were planned before joining them with their families at a reception. 

It was where General Eisenhower used a large plywood map of the English Channel, which was big enough to fill an entire wall of the old drawing room, which was commissioned by the firm Chad Valley Toys and was installed in the house in April 1944.

The pins, tapes and markers on the map have now been reset to mark the positions of ships at H Hour when the first troops landed on the beaches, the Prince told two veterans who thanked him for coming: 'I happened to be in the area. It was a perfect opportunity.'

Royal Navy veterans Frank Diffell, from Wallasey, Wirral, and John Dennett, from Melksham, Wiltshire, both 91, who both served on landing craft, posed for pictures with him in the room where Eisenhower and his commanders, including General Bernard Montgomery and Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, spent six days plotting the invasion in June 1944.

Prince Harry signs the visitors book as he attends the reception for the Normandy Veterans

Harry asked some of the veterans what the atmosphere was like on the ships crossing the Channel. One veteran replied that no one talked much, saying, 'It's amazing to think... just running off a boat like that.'

After posing for a group photo with the veterans, Harry told told them: 'Enjoy the week, share the memories.' 

Harry said to the two veterans: 'I have so much respect for you guys - running off a boat on to those beaches.'

Harry asked them what the atmosphere was like on the ships crossing the Channel and on the landing crafts as the troops prepared for the assault. They told him nobody talked much.

'It's amazing to think.. just running off a boat like that,' he said. 

Harry then wished them well on their trip to France for the commemorations and added: 'Don't get into trouble and if you do, don't get caught.'

After posing for a group photo with the veterans, he told them: 'Enjoy the week, share the memories.' 

The event was arranged by D-Day Revisited, the group which funds and organises pilgrimages to give veterans of the Normandy campaign an opportunity to revisit the beaches and surrounding areas where they fought, and to pay tribute to those they left behind in 1944.

It provides medical support as many of the retired servicemen get older and less mobile.