It was June 1945. There was some guarded hope in the air on these shores. Germany had surrendered in May as World War II in an exhausted and d…
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Veterans have gathered on the beaches of Normandy to mark the 81st anniversary of the D-Day landings — a pivotal moment during World War II that eventually led to the collapse of Adolf Hitler's regime. Tens of thousands of people attended the commemorations, which included parachute jumps, flyovers, remembrance ceremonies, parades, and historical reenactments. The June 6, 1944, D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied France was unprecedented in scale and audacity, using the largest-ever armada of ships, troops, planes and vehicles to punch a hole in Hitler's defenses in western Europe. A total of 4,414 Allied troops were killed on D-Day itself.
The 80th anniversary this week of D-Day brings mixed emotions for French survivors of the Battle of Normandy. They remain grateful for their liberation from Nazi occupation in World War II but cannot forget its steep cost in French lives. Some 20,000 Normandy civilians were killed in the June 6, 1944, Allied invasion and as the landing forces fought inland. Soldiers from the United States and other Allied nations are remembered for their exploits, kindness and sacrifices. One Normandy survivor who was 6 in 1944 says, "They will always be gods to me." But also seared into survivors' memories are Allied bombing raids that pulverized Normandy communities.
Across Normandy, France, where the largest-ever land, sea and air armada punctured Adolf Hitler's defenses in western Europe on D-Day, Allied veterans of World War II are the VVIPs of 80th anniversary celebrations this week. Veterans, many of them centenarians and likely returning to France for one last time, pilgrimaged Tuesday to what was the bloodiest of five Allied landing beaches on June 6, 1944. Veterans are remembering fallen friends, reliving the horrors of combat and blessing their good fortune for surviving. They're also mourning the ultimate price paid by those who didn't and hoping generations following them don't forget.
On D-Day, The Associated Press had reporters, artists and photographers in the air, on the choppy waters of the English Channel, in London, and at English departure ports and airfields covering the Allied assault in Normandy. As men on either side of him were killed, AP correspondent Roger Greene waded ashore on June 6, 1944. Sheltering with his typewriter in a bomb crater, Greene pounded out the first AP report from the beachhead. He wrote: ""Hitler's Atlantic Wall cracked in the first hour under tempestuous Allied assault." The dead in the ensuing Battle of Normandy included AP photographer Bede Irvin, killed as he was photographing an Allied bombardment.
The D-Day invasion that helped change the course of World War II was unprecedented in scale and audacity. Veterans and world dignitaries are commemorating the 79th anniversary of the operation. Nearly 160,000 Allied troops landed on the shores of Normandy at dawn on June 6, 1944. Several thousand Allied troops and German forces were killed on that single day alone. More than 2 million Allied soldiers, sailors, pilots, medics and other people from a dozen countries were involved in the overall Operation Overlord. That was the code name for the battle to wrest western France from Nazi control that started on D-Day.
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