WWII Veterans Converge on Normandy for D-Day and Fallen Friends

OMaha Beach, France – Under their feet, the sands of Omaha Beach, and in their rheumy eyes, tears that inevitably flowed from being on the venerated coast of Normandy, France, where so many young Americans were killed 80 years ago on D-Day.

Veterans of the Second World War, many of them centenarians and probably returning to France for the last time, made a pilgrimage on Tuesday to what was the bloodiest of the five Allied landing beaches in the June 6, 1944. They remembered fallen friends. They relived the horrors they experienced in combat. They blessed his good luck for surviving. And they mourned those who paid the ultimate price.

They also conveyed a message to previous generations, who owe them so much: Don’t forget what we did.

“They probably wouldn’t be here if we hadn’t been successful,” said Llilburn “Bill” Wall, who flew bombers in World War II and will celebrate his 101st birthday this week as a World leaders meet in France to honor the D-Day generation.

As the decades pass, the anniversaries of D-Day in Normandy increasingly become an amusement park likeclogging the region’s tree-lined roads with World War II fans dressed in uniforms and driving restored period vehicles. But the presence of dwindling numbers of veterans keeps the celebrations real, inevitably raising questions about whether the memoriesthe pathos and lessons of the Second World War will disappear when they disappear.

“There are things worth fighting for. Although I wish there was another way to do this than trying to kill each other. But sometimes you are called to do something and you just do it. You know? And that. These people looked death in the face and kept moving forward,” said Walter Stitt, who turns 100 in July and fought in tanks – surviving the destruction of three.

“All those young people who never had the chance to come home and meet the love of their lives and hold their children in their arms,” he said in Omaha, wiping away a tear.

On the cliffs above Omaha, at the Normandy American Cemetery with 9,387 immaculately cared for gravesBob Gibson, 100, paid tribute to comrades who died on D-Day when he landed on the other, less bloody American landing beach, codenamed Utah.

“You don’t want other people to go through the same thing,” he said. “Because I’ve seen a lot of these kids who never made it to the beach, believe me. And we were all 18, 19 years old.”

“I’m happy I did it. The old man upstairs took care of me,” he said, pointing to the sky.

Across the coast from Normandy, where the largest land, sea and air armada ever pierced Adolf Hitler’s defenses in Western Europe on D-Day and helped precipitate his downfall 11 months later, Allied veterans are the VVIPs of the celebrations this week’s 80th anniversary.

More veterans were on their way Tuesday, traveling by ferry from southern England across the English Channel, that 23,000 Allied airborne troops flew to land in Normandy on D-Day, and that more than 132,000 others crossed aboard thousands of ships that extended to the eyes. I could see, landing in Utah and Omaha and three other beaches codenamed: Gold, Juno and Sword.

“It looked like you could cross the English Channel using boats as stepping stones,” recalled 100-year-old Robert Pedigo, who was a nose gunner aboard a B-24 bomber that flew over the landing beaches on D-Day to attack the Germans. . air forces. He was part of the group of veterans who visited Omaha on Tuesday, brought to France to celebrate the 80th anniversary of American Airlines.

Back at base on the night of D-Day, he was informed that the Allies had suffered thousands of casualties.

“Overwhelming,” he recalled. Although his bombing mission that day proved to be one of the “easiest” of the 30 he flew over occupied France and Nazi Germany, “the emotional impact was the greatest.”

More than 4,400 Allied soldiers were killed on D-Day, including more than 2,500 Americans. The Allied casualty toll rose terribly in the ensuing Battle of Normandy, with 73,000 dead and 153,000 wounded.

Eight decades later, veterans are creating new, more pleasant memories to go along with the old, painful ones.

Aboard the Mont St. Michel ferry carrying them Tuesday to France, about 20 British veterans gathered on deck and waved like rock stars to cheering supporters.

A pipe band played a stirring version of “Brave Scotland.” The sailors stood at attention. Firefighters blasted their hoses in an arc. A military transport plane flew by twice.

RAF veteran Bernard Morgan, who worked in communications on D-Day, laughed: “It was nicer to come today than 80 years ago.”

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Danica Kirka reported from the Mont St. Michel ferry in the English Channel.