I made it up, 96-year-old D-Day hero confesses

An American D-Day veteran who was feted as a war hero after surviving a dangerous mission to attack German artillery positions on the Normandy cliffs has confessed, at the age of 96, to making the whole thing up.

For decades George G. Klein has been hailed for his part in a fierce battle on June 6, 1944 at the Pointe du Hoc, on the French coast between Omaha and Utah beaches, as a member of the elite 2nd Ranger Battalion.

He was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star medals by the Americans and the Legion of Honour by the French.

This year, t he D- Day Overlord association raised almost US$ 4,000 in crowdfunding to bring him over from his home in Glenview, Ill., where he said: “I’m not a hero. The real heroes are those who have l ost l i fe here.”

Describing him as “one of the great celebrities” of this year’s anniversary, the association said he had signed “hundreds of autographs” and attended commemorations, “marking all those he met by his incredible kindness.”

However, soon after his return to the U. S., Klein confessed that he was nowhere near the beaches of Normandy, and not among the 225 Rangers of the 2nd Battalion. In fact, he was in Northern Ireland with the B Battery of his artillery regiment ( 46th Field Artillery Battalion, 5th Infantry Division).

The veteran owned up after historians, including Gary Sterne, owner of the Maisy battery museum, and Marty Morgan could find no trace of him.

“George Klein arrived in Normandy in July, 1944,” Marc Laurenceau, head of the Overlord D- Day association, told the French newspaper La Renaissance Le Bessin.

“I’m in contact with his family with whom I have become friends. They are devastated,” he said. “So are we, as we believed his story. We put in a lot of effort to get him to Normandy.”

Despite his fake account, the Overlord D- Day association said George Klein should “not be ashamed of his real contribution to the liberation of Europe,” as he was wounded in combat in Germany on Nov. 17, 1944.

“Trapped into a lie that shaped him in the eyes of his entourage, and from which he could no longer escape, he finally resolved to tell the truth.”

The association said this was not an isolated case, citing Howard Manoian and Eugene A. Cook Jr, who were unmasked in 2009 and February, 2017. They had both fabricated careers as U.S. airborne troops.