D-DAY, 69 YEARS LATER
Veterans of the 1944 Normandy campaign gather at the site of the largest amphibious invasion in history.
COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France — Veterans of the 1944 Normandy landings gathered Thursday at the site of history’s largest amphibious invasion for a day of ceremonies marking D-Day’s 69th anniversary.
Around two dozen US vets, some in their old uniforms pinned with medals, stood and saluted during a wreath-laying ceremony at the memorial overlooking Omaha Beach.
There, a U.S. cemetery holds the remains of over 9,000 Americans who died during the vicious battle to storm the French beach under withering Nazi fire.
The small turnout reflects the dwindling numbers of D-Day veterans still alive.
World War II veterans are dying at a rate of more than 600 each day, meaning tales of combat in Europe and the Pacific are more likely to come from a book or a website than from the veterans themselves.
But even as the D-Day veterans leave us, the memories of what they did on June 6, 1944 remain an inspiration to the nations whose fate hung in the balance as they came ashore.
At Thursday’s ceremony, commemorations of the battle began in respectful silence, with the stars-and-stripes raised in a quiet ceremony at the cemetery.
Tourists, many from the U.S. and Britain, gathered under a brilliant spring sky to witness the flag-raising amid the neat rows of thousands of white marble crosses and stars of David marking the graves of U.S. servicemen and women who died at Normandy.
A full day of ceremonies was taking place across Normandy in honor of the more than 150,000 troops, mainly U. S., British and Canadian, who participated in the invasion that turned the tide of the war in Europe and began the bitter fight that led to the defeat of Nazi Germany.
The invasion began the night of June 5 and into the morning, as a huge armada of ships carried more than 156,000 troops across the English Channel. At dawn, troops began coming ashore on a 60-mile front.
Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, the allied commander in Europe, saluted the soldiers on that fateful morning.
“The tide has turned. The free men of the world are marching together to victory!” Eisenhower said in an historic address after the invasion was launched.