Pub celebrates D-Day anniversary with fake bomb raid

The Maltsters Arms, in Henley on Thames, also had a pianist playing wartime songs at the event.

Peter Bland, who has been running the Brakspear tenanted pub with his wife Helen for the past 16 years, said the research began with menu planning and spiralled from there.

He said: “We have a house in Normandy 40 minutes from the D-Day beaches and were intending on going to the celebrations but area decided to offer our house free of charge to a family of any veterans of D-Day. The offer was gladly taken up by a family that were going to see their father and grandfather at the celebrations with the Royal family. So, we decided to put on a D-Day celebration at the pub.”

The event included an air raid shelter built at the front of the pub, staff dressed in 1940s military uniform and a menu ranging from spam fitters to corned beer hash and bread and butter pudding with lumpy custard.

There was also a novel twist on the commemorations.

Bland said: “When it got dark we replicated a bomb attack by turning all the light off, putting the air raid siren over the PA system then setting off 20 thunder flashes outside. There was quite a bang too.

The couple also offered a free week’s holiday at their Normandy house for the best dressed customer.

Bland said: “We finished with the Last Post, which was an appropriate finish to a truly memorable event.”