WWII D-Day veteran, 101, dies

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A United States paratrooper who participated in the 1944 D-Day invasion, and lived to reenact the famed World War II landing 75 years later, has died aged 101, his unit — the 101st Airborne Division — announced Thursday.

“Today we say farewell to a 101st Airborne Legend, Tom Rice,” the US Army division tweeted.

In the night of 5 June 1944, Rice strapped himself with 50 kilograms of weapons and supplies and joined his 9,000 comrades on a nighttime flight across the English Channel into Nazi-occupied Normandy.