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By CNN Royal Correspondent Max Foster and Lauren Said-Moorhouse in London

Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images

Britain's King Charles III embarked on his first overseas trip since being diagnosed with cancer on Thursday, traveling across the English Channel to France for commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of the 1944 D-Day Landings in Normandy.
 
Nearly 160,000 Allied troops landed on five stretches of the German-occupied Normandy coastline on June 6, 1944. Operation Overlord -- as D-Day was codenamed -- remains, to this day, the largest amphibious invasion in history and was a crucial turning point in defeating the Nazis in World War II.
 
King Charles and Queen Camilla attended the UK Ministry of Defence and the Royal British Legion's commemorative event at the British Normandy Memorial at Ver-sur-Mer. Charles is patron of both the Royal British Legion and Normandy Memorial Trust.
 
"How fortunate we were and the entire free world that a generation of men and women in the United Kingdom and other Allied nations did not flinch when the moment came to face that test," Charles said, adding that his grandfather, King George VI, described the events of D-Day as "the supreme test."

Jane Barlow/PA

While the King traveled to France for the historic commemorations, he did not join world leaders - including French President Emmanuel Macron and his US counterpart Joe Biden -- later Thursday as they gathered at Omaha Beach. Instead, Prince William represented Britain's royal family at the international ceremony.
 
The optics of seeing the Prince of Wales instead of his father will not have been lost on those within the royal household, as well as royal-watchers. Nonetheless, CNN understands that it wasn't a deliberate orchestration. William, 41, has deputized for Charles before, such as when he traveled to Kuwait for the funeral of Emir Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah in December.
 
However, seeing the future monarch in the company of other heads of state was a powerful visual and speaks to the longer transition that will prepare the public for King William V's reign.

It's worth remembering that King Charles also only recently returned to public engagements after getting the green light from his doctors who were "encouraged" by his progress. A royal source told CNN that the second afternoon engagement was considered a step too far at this stage but that the monarch was delighted the Prince of Wales was representing the nation.

Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images

William has been an ever-present fixture as the royal family marked the D-Day anniversary in recent days. Earlier Thursday, the heir to the British throne paid tribute at the Canadian commemorative ceremony at the Juno Beach Centre in Courseulles-Sur-Mer, where he joined veterans as well as current serving personnel before making a speech and laying a wreath.
 
A day earlier, William joined Charles and Camilla at the UK's national commemorative event in Portsmouth. The city on England's south coast was one of the places Allied troops sailed from before the Normandy landings.
William paid tribute to veterans who "came from across our nation and from all walks of life to join in the fight against tyranny. Many of those that took up arms had never seen combat before, some were still only in their teens."
 
Read more on this story here.

Aaron Chown/AFP/Getty Images

Princess Anne was also in France for the poignant anniversary, heading to the Bayeux War Cemetery on Wednesday where she joined a solemn vigil and met with veterans. See more photos from commemorations here.  

Hearing first-hand accounts from veterans and remembering those hard-fought lessons has been a key theme of the King's speeches during the D-Day commemorations.
 
Ahead of his trip, King Charles and Queen Camilla hosted four D-Day veterans at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday. The veterans brought personal objects to share with the royal couple. Arthur Oborne, 100, presented his dog tags -- a type of identification tag worn by soldiers -- still stained with blood.  
 
"These are the dog tags which were recovered after I got a bullet through the lung, and there is blood still on some of them," he said, according to the UK's PA Media news agency. In response, Camilla said: "It must be very difficult recollecting it all."  

Chris Jackson/Getty Images

RAF codebreaker Bernard Morgan brought some brown football boots he carried with him all through the war. Morgan, also 100, said that he even played a game of football on the landing craft bound for Normandy. "I don't believe it ... How fantastic. They're remarkably well-preserved," Charles noted.  
During the visit, Charles shared a diary entry extract written on D-Day by his grandfather, King George VI. "The news was given out at 8 a.m. that the invasion of the continent of Europe had started last night," Charles said, reading the entry aloud. 
 
The King also appeared moved when John Dennett, 99, a former Navy gunner, spoke about the number of lives lost during the war. "When you look back at the lads we lost, it was colossal," Dennett said. "It's frightening. But that's when you feel grateful for what you've been through."

Yui Mok/Getty Images

Bank notes featuring a portrait of the King went into circulation in England on Wednesday. The notes, which are available in £5, £10, £20 and £50 denominations, include a portrait of Charles, replacing the previous portrait of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. 
 
Bank notes featuring the late Queen will remain legal tender and will co-circulate with new banknotes, according to the Bank of England.
 
The King Charles notes will be rolled out "very gradually," it continued, saying that new notes will only be printed to replace worn notes or to meet any increase in demand. This is being done to "minimize the environmental and financial impact of this change."
 
Members of the public can exchange up to £300 ($383) of their old bank notes for the same value of new King Charles notes until the end of June, the Bank of England said. Read more on this story here.

"Today we come together to honor those nearly 160,000  British, Commonwealth and Allied troops who, on 5 June 1944, assembled here and along these shores to embark on the mission which would strike that blow for freedom and be recorded as the greatest amphibious operation in history."

– King Charles III

The monarch paid tribute to the "courage, resilience and solidarity" of veterans at a major commemoration in Portsmouth, England on Wednesday. Allied troops left the city on England's south coast on June 5, 1944 before launching the largest seaborne invasion in history.

CNN's Jessie Gretener, Billy Stockwell and Catherine Nicholls contributed to this newsletter.