Veterans' cross-Channel VE Day survival challenge

Two Army veterans have challenged themselves to travel from North Yorkshire to Normandy without spending any money to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day.

Lee Holmes, 38, and Doug Lincoln, 35, have set their own rules for the 600-mile (965km) trip to France, including carrying their own kit, surviving on their own rations and only using transport for 90 minutes at a time.

The friends, who served together in Afghanistan as part of the Yorkshire Regiment, which was formed in 2006 from three regiments including The Green Howards, left Richmond on Thursday and aimed to arrive in Crepon, France, before 8 May.

Mr Holmes said: "We will smash it, easy - we don't do failure. We're from Yorkshire."

The pair said that once they had arrived at the Green Howards Memorial in Crepon, they aimed to join the commemorations on the Normandy beaches to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two in Europe.

Mr Holmes and Mr Lincoln have set themselves the target of raising £10,000 for veterans' mental health charity Combat Stress, and they said they had already raised about £3,000 towards that goal.

As well as raising money, they said the challenge gave them the chance to pay their respects to members of their regiment who gave their lives during World War Two.

Mr Holmes said: "It is going to be a mixture of physical effort, but it's also going to be mental effort too.

"We will need to use initiative, a bit of witty banter, to get to our destination on time."

Mr Holmes explained that the rules they had set themselves included carrying all their own food and water on their backs and having no access to money.

"We will have no funds at all, just to make it even harder," he said.

"We will carry all our own rations, but it will be cold rations, too. I mean, everyone loves cold beans and sausages."

Any transport, food, tickets, or shelter could only be obtained as gifts from members of the public they meet along the way, Mr Holmes said.

The pair would go live on the internet once a day, "under the guise of 'The Misery Miles'", allowing people to pledge money and encouraging them to set extra challenges in return for a donation.

Mr Holmes said one challenge had already been set, which was that they should wear their boots backwards on the last day.

Asked how much money was pledged for this, he wrily responded: "Not enough."

Mr Holmes said they believed the "biggest challenge" was going to be getting across the English Channel without any cash.

"We will aim for Portsmouth, with it being a military town, and we will say, help us get across the water. We will work for our passage."

Mr Holmes emphasised that there was a serious side to their cross-Channel undertaking.

"We dreamed up a unique and difficult challenge that would hopefully generate much support and interest, but also one that would allow us to keep alive the sacrifice of those Green Howards who came before us," he said.

"It's going to be tough: the uncertainty, the elements, the sleeping rough, the reliance on the generosity of strangers.

"But if we make it to that memorial and help even one fellow veteran in the process, it will be completely worth it."

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