By The Related Press
World Warfare II veterans joined heads of state and others Thursday for poignant ceremonies on the seashores of Normandy to commemorate the eightieth anniversary of D-Day.
The Allied invasion, which started on June 6, 1944, led to the defeat of the Nazis and the top of the warfare. The assault started with Allied plane bombing German defenses in Normandy, adopted by round 1,200 plane that carried airborne troops. As daybreak broke, Allied forces began bombing German coastal defenses and shortly after that vessels started placing troops ashore on 5 codenamed seashores: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. By the top of the day, almost 160,000 Allied troops had landed in Normandy, though there have been hundreds of casualties.
Few witnesses to historical past’s largest amphibious invasion stay alive at present.
Presently:
— Hour by hour: A quick timeline of the Allies’ invasion of occupied France
— With time quick, veterans seize the possibility to maintain their D-Day reminiscences alive for others
— Girls had been barred from fight. However they helped D-Day achieve different methods
— How AP lined the D-Day landings and misplaced a photographer within the battle for Normandy
— A Jewish veteran from London prepares to commemorate the eightieth anniversary
Right here’s the most recent:
HUGE APPLAUSE FOR ZELENSKYY AT INTERNATIONAL CEREMONY
OMAHA BEACH, France — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been greeted with large applause and cheers as he arrived for a D-Day anniversary ceremony attended by worldwide leaders.
Zelenskyy is becoming a member of different world leaders, heads of state and veterans on the promenade alongside Omaha Seashore for the ceremony, set to start shortly.
Earlier, he wrote on X that he was honored to be taking part within the D-Day commemoration with President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and others.
“This event and day serve as a reminder of the courage and determination demonstrated in the pursuit of freedom and democracy,” Zelenskyy mentioned. “Allies defended Europe’s freedom then, and Ukrainians do so now. Unity prevailed then, and true unity can prevail today.”
99-YEAR-OLD U.S. VETERAN TELLS HIS STORY TO DANISH KING
UTAH BEACH, France — An 99-year-old American veteran of D-Day who landed within the first waves on Utah Seashore has advised the king of Denmark that seeing French households years later enjoying and holding arms on the identical sands in Normandy, France, made the June 6, 1944, Allied invasion really feel value it to him.
Warren Goss, a Pittsburgh, PA., native drafted at age 18, landed with the U.S. Military 4th Infantry Division’s 531st Particular Brigade. He mentioned he jumped over the facet of his touchdown craft after troopers in entrance of him had been hit by gunfire, falling chest-deep into the chilly waters of the English Channel.
He deserted a lot of his gear, retaining his rifle, ammunition, grenades and a backpack with meals, so he might wade to shore and battle his means up the seashore, raked by machine-gun hearth. A soldier beside him had a leg ripped off by heavy-caliber spherical “and that boy got up three times to run, and he fell three times and quit,” he recalled.
Denmark’s King Frederik X handled Goss just like the VVIP after they met on the eightieth anniversary of D-Day on Thursday.
“I’m very honored to meet somebody who ran over this beach, to liberate, to give freedom,” the king mentioned.
“I feel good about it. Yeah,” Goss replied.
BIDEN DRAWS PARALLELS BETWEEN UKRAINE WAR AND WWII
COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France — U.S. President Joe Biden has reaffirmed America’s dedication to the protection of Ukraine, saying in his D-Day anniversary speech that “we will not walk away” and provides into bullies.
Biden’s remark about bullies was a reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who despatched his navy throughout the border into Ukraine greater than two years in the past in an tried takeover. The U.S. and different nations have been aiding Ukraine by sending weapons, cash and different assist.
Biden used his speech Thursday to attach what occurred throughout World Warfare II to the Russia-Ukraine battle.
The president praised the ability of alliances and mentioned Russia’s advance won’t cease with Ukraine if the world walks away. Biden mentioned “Ukraine’s neighbors will be threatened” and “all of Europe will be threatened.”
He argued for holding sturdy in opposition to Putin, saying “to surrender to bullies, to bow down to dictators is simply unthinkable” and that to provide in “means we’d forget what happened here” on the seashores of Normandy.
11 U.S. VETERANS AWARDED WITH LEGION OF HONOR
COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France — French President Emmanuel Macron has awarded 11 U.S. WWII veterans with the Legion of Honor, France’s highest distinction, throughout commemorations marking the eightieth anniversary of D-Day.
“You came here because the free world needed each and every one of you, and you answered the call,” Macron advised them. “You came here to make France a free nation. You’re back here today at home, if I may say.”
The boys at the moment are 98 to 104 years previous.
Macron kissed every veteran on each cheeks and greeted them warmly as he pinned medals on their lapels.
Among the many males was Hilbert Margol, who joined an artillery battalion that operated in japanese France. He’s a part of American forces that liberated the Dachau focus camp. One other, Ray Tweedel, landed by sea in Normandy on the night time of June 8, 1944, and took half within the warfare as an oil tanker and ambulance driver.
103-YEAR-OLD FEMALE VETERAN GIVEN LEGION OF HONOR AWARD
VER-SUR-MER, France — French President Emmanuel Macron bestowed a Legion of Honor award on a 103-year-old feminine British veteran officer who created detailed maps that guided the crews of touchdown craft on D-Day.
Christian Lamb sat in a wheelchair as Macron bent all the way down to pin the medal on her and kissed her on each cheeks.
He advised her she was one of many “heroes in the shadows” as he described how she was finding out in Normandy in 1939 when her father, a Royal Navy admiral, known as her again to London on the eve of World Warfare II.
In a latest interview with The Related Press, Lamb recalled creating maps that “showed railways, roads, churches, castles, every possible feature that could be visible to an incoming invader and from every angle,” Lamb.
“It was intense and exciting work, and obviously detail was vital. It was crucial that the maps were 100% accurate,” she mentioned.
PRINCE WILLIAM PRAISES CANADIAN TROOPS IN NORMANDY
JUNO BEACH, France — Prince William has praised the bravery and sacrifice of Canadian troops as he addressed a D-Day anniversary ceremony on Juno Seashore.
The royal was joined by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and Canadian D-Day veterans.
Some 14,000 Canadians had been a part of the 150,000 Allied troops who landed or parachuted into Normandy in 1944.
“Far from home they stormed these very sand dunes behind me, shoulder to shoulder with thousands of British troops,” William mentioned.
Addressing veterans on the ceremony, the royal added: “Thank you for our freedom, and thank you for your service.”
PRESIDENT BIDEN MEETS WITH AMERICAN VETERANS
COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France — U.S. President Joe Biden met with American veterans of D-Day as he marked the invasion’s eightieth anniversary.
Veterans who might stand had been helped out of wheelchairs to pose for photographs with the president and first woman Jill Biden. One hugged Biden, one other saluted. When Biden realized it was the birthday of one of many veterans, he led the viewers in singing ‘Happy Birthday.’
The primary woman clutched the arm of one other veteran, Robert Gibson, to assist him stand subsequent to Biden as they shook arms. “Don’t get old,” the 100-year-old man joked to the 81-year-old president, who was a toddler when D-Day happened.
Steve Spielberg and Tom Hanks, the Hollywood heavyweights behind films and tv reveals about World Warfare II, had been close by.
KING CHARLES AND QUEEN CAMILLA LEAD D-DAY COMMEMORATIONS AT NEW MEMORIAL IN FRANCE
VER-SUR-MER, France — King Charles III and Queen Camilla led commemorations on the new British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer.
Camilla wiped away a tear as actor Martin Freeman learn phrases by 99-year-old D-Day veteran Joe Mines, recalling that “I was 19 when I landed, but I was still a boy. I don’t care what people say, I wasn’t a man, I was a boy. And I didn’t have any idea of war and killing.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour Get together chief Keir Starmer took a break from campaigning for Britain’s July 4 election to journey to France for the ceremony.
Sunak paid tribute to veterans, saying their “actions freed a continent and built a better world.”
“You risked everything and we owe you everything,” he mentioned. “We cannot possibly hope to repay that debt but we can and we must pledge never to forget.”
Welsh singer Tom Jones, 83, sang his music “I Won’t Crumble With You If You Fall,” earlier than the king addressed the viewers in French and English.
Charles mentioned that whereas the variety of residing veterans was dwindling, “our obligation to remember what they stood for and what they achieved for us all can never diminish.”
Talking in French, Charles paid tribute to the “unimaginable number” of French civilians killed within the battle for Normandy, and the bravery and sacrifice of the French Resistance.
MAN HONORS A GRANDFATHER HE NEVER KNEW, AN OFFICER WHO SMUGGLED HIMSELF ON A LANDING CRAFT
UTAH BEACH, France — Among the many hundreds who flocked to D-Day seashore Utah was the grandson of an American colonel who smuggled himself aboard a touchdown craft so he might be part of his males within the first waves of the June 6, 1944, invasion.
John Reistrup, 55, by no means met his grandfather, Eugene M. Caffey, who died in 1961. Coming again to Utah for the eightieth anniversary was his means of carrying “the torch for someone you never met that had such an impact on so many lives.”
A plaque on the seashore that honors his grandfather says the colonel led the 19,500 males of the first Engineer Particular Brigade tasked on that fateful day with the logistics of the touchdown on Utah, considered one of 5 invasion seashores.
Not scheduled to land till 0900, Caffey, a 49-year-old father of 9, had smuggled himself, with no tools besides an empty rifle, aboard an eighth Infantry touchdown craft. En route he managed to load his rifle by taking on a set of 1 bullet every from eight squaddies. He arrived ashore very early within the assault, Reistrup mentioned.
“No officers were allowed on the first waves of the landing but he said, ‘Hell, no, I’m going with my guys.’”
A Nazi bunker captured on the seashore then turned his grandfather’s workplace, he mentioned. Caffey’s portrait hangs there, inside, to at the present time.
Forging forward into hearth on D-Day “has got to be the greatest courage you could ever have,” mentioned Reistrup, who has visited Normandy about 10 occasions since his first go to as a child in 1974.
THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE DOT FRANCE’S UTAH BEACH FOR D-DAY COMMEMORATIONS
UTAH BEACH, France — Hundreds of individuals, together with many individuals in World Warfare II-era uniforms, had been stretched for a number of kilometers (miles) alongside Utah Seashore forward of commemorations marking the eightieth anniversary of the D-Day landings.
Utah was one of many 5 touchdown seashores alongside the coast of Normandy the place Allied troops landed on June 6, 2024. Utah and Omaha had been taken — at the price of a whole bunch of lives — by American forces, with the others stormed by troops from Britain and Canada, additionally killing many a whole bunch, plus others from France.
The lengthy stretch of the Normandy coast is the place the largest-ever land, sea and air armada punctured Hitler’s defenses in Western Europe and helped precipitate his downfall 11 months later.
A good-like ambiance is fueled by World Warfare II-era jeeps and vehicles tearing down hedge-rowed lanes so lethal for Allied troops who fought dug-in German defenders, and of reenactors enjoying at warfare on sands the place D-Day troopers fell.
Surviving veterans, who’re round 100 years previous now, are the VIPs of the day’s occasions.
‘FREEDOM COSTS,’ DENMARK’S PRIME MINISTER SAYS AS SHE MARKS D-DAY’S 80TH ANNIVERSARY
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Denmark’s prime minister mentioned that this yr’s observances of the D-Day landings, which come as Russia is at warfare in opposition to Ukraine, are a reminder that there’s a worth for defending freedom.
“From D-Day we have learned that freedom costs,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen mentioned in a press release as she headed to Normandy for ceremonies marking the eightieth anniversary of the Allied landings.
“Eighty years later, Europe once again finds itself at a fateful moment. Where freedom is once again being fought for on our own continent,” she mentioned, “against an aggressive and brutal enemy who will dictate country borders with brute force and leave a trail of death and destruction.”
IMAGINING THE HORROR AND CELEBRATING FREEDOM
UTAH BEACH, France — As a result of freedom is value celebrating and passing on to kids, too, Alexandra Hamon, 35, drank champagne and shared the dawn together with her boys, Karl and Neils, each 13, because the day dawned Thursday over the seashores the place Allied troopers landed on D-Day.
The household was amongst a crowd a number of hundreds sturdy that stretched for kilometers alongside Utah seashore — one of many 5 seashores alongside the coast of Normandy the place Allied troops landed. Utah and Omaha had been taken — at the price of a whole bunch of lives — by American forces, with the others stormed by troops from Britain and Canada, additionally killing many a whole bunch, plus others from France. The opposite code-named seashores are Juno, Sword and Gold.
Karl sat perched on the hood of their 1943 Dodge truck, lovingly restored by her husband, Enogat, because the household from Saint Malo, a French coastal metropolis that was badly broken in main preventing about two months after D-Day, stared out throughout the English Channel.
The waters Thursday had been nonetheless and peaceable — not like on that fateful day that helped change the course of WWII and precipitate Adolf Hitler’s downfall 11 months later.
“It’s indescribable, just imagining the chaos. Now it’s peaceful, almost festive, we try to imagine but I think it’s unimaginable,” she mentioned.
“You think of all those guys, everything they went through,” she added of the fast-dwindling D-Day veterans. “They say they aren’t heroes. But they are, they are.”
KEEPING ALIVE THE MEMORY OF SOLDIERS ‘WHO DIED FOR OUR FREEDOM’
UTAH BEACH, France — Because the rising solar took the night time’s chill off Utah Seashore, Christophe Receveur, 57, from Thionville in japanese France, unfurled a Stars and Stripes he purchased in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, six months in the past particularly to honor the Individuals who fell on D-Day.
“To keep alive the memory of the soldiers who died for our freedom,” he mentioned. “To forget them is to let them die all over again.”
Receveur and his daughter, Julie, 28, fastidiously folded the flag into a good triangle after their quiet, reflective homage on an empty stretch of the seashore, busy with a whole bunch of individuals strung out alongside the sands.
Receveur mentioned the Ukraine warfare was on his thoughts, too, as he honored the fallen of WWII. His nice grandfather fought in WWI, his grandfather was a prisoner of warfare in WWII, and his father was a veteran of France’s warfare in former North African colony Algeria.
“I don’t want our freedom, for our kids, our grandkids, to be hit by … I don’t want to say a madman,” referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “So a lot of respect for these people who died and for those who are still dying,” he mentioned of the WWII useless and people in Ukraine.
‘WE JUST HAVE TO REMEMBER THE SACRIFICES’
UTAH BEACH, France — Because the golden solar pierced low clouds over the seas that had been thick with touchdown craft approaching Normandy on D-Day, Becky Kraubetz peered throughout the English Channel towards her native Britain, her eyes full of tears as she thought concerning the scene 80 years in the past.
“It’s so historic and we just have to remember the sacrifices of everybody who gave us our freedom,” mentioned Kraubetz, whose grandfather served with the British Military throughout World Warfare II and was captured in Malta.
“It gives you goosebumps, everything that happened here. Imagine just jumping into the water, freezing cold,” mentioned the 54-year-old who now lives in Florida, because the rays of the morning solar began to heat the a whole bunch of people that’d waited by the night time’s chill for daybreak’s break.
“The bravery, the courage, for people to face that is just unbelievable — very, very humbled to be here.”
THE SUN RISES OVER NORMANDY BEACHES AS THE WORLD REMEMBERS D-DAY
UTAH BEACH, France — Because the solar units on the D-Day technology, it’s rising once more over Normandy seashores the place troopers fought and died precisely 80 years in the past, kicking off intense anniversary commemorations Thursday in opposition to the backdrop of renewed warfare in Europe, in Ukraine.
Ever-dwindling numbers of World Warfare II veterans, and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, make this anniversary notably significant, mixing poignant remembrances for D-Day sacrifices with an Allied present of solidarity for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, among the many friends.
However host France hasn’t invited World Warfare II ally Russia, citing its “war of aggression against Ukraine that has intensified in recent weeks.”
HUNDREDS GATHER AT DAWN AT UTAH BEACH TO MARK D-DAY’S 80TH ANNIVERSARY
UTAH BEACH, France — A whole bunch of individuals, some in WWII-era uniforms, arrived earlier than daybreak to stretch out throughout the now peaceable sands of Utah Seashore, one of many 5 Allied touchdown zones on D-Day the place troops waded into chilly seas by hails of fireside precisely 80 years in the past.
“It’s our way of paying homage, and better understanding what really happened in the 1944 landings,” mentioned Dimitri Picot, a 33-year-old from the close by Normandy city of Carentan who works as a rat and pest catcher.
Picot mentioned he usually dives on a wrecked ship that was hit and exploded, its wreckage seen Thursday as night time gave solution to day. Rising up amid the June 6, 1944, touchdown zones, he mentioned he has change into accustomed to seeing partitions nonetheless pockmarked by bullets, shrapnel and different reminders of that fateful day.
However on the eightieth anniversary “to think that they liberated us” hammered dwelling the emotion, he mentioned.
