COLEVILLE SUR MER, France (AP)-D-Day veterans sailed to the Normandy shores and World War II. Joy at the gratitude and friendship of the French to those who landed on June 6, 1944. Sorrow when they think of their fallen comrades and the other war that is taking place in Europe today: the war in Ukraine.
On Monday, 78 years later, as the bright sun rises over the vast stretch of Omaha Beach, American D-Day veteran Charles Shay expressed his thoughts to colleagues who fell that day. “I haven’t forgotten them and I know their spirits are here,” he told the Associated Press.
Penobscot, 98, an Indian from Indian Island, Maine, attended a sage burning ceremony near the beach in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer.
Shay, now living in Normandy, was a 19-year-old US Army medic when she arrived on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944.
He said he was sorry to see the war in Europe again after all these years.
“The situation in Ukraine is very sad. I feel sorry for the people there and I don’t know why this war has to start, but I think people want it, I think they want war. I don’t know, he said.
“I came to these beaches in 1944 and we thought we would bring peace to the world. But it is impossible. “
VERT-SUR-MER, FRANCE-JUNE 06: Retired Wing Commander Steve Dean (right), British Normandy Memorial Project Manager and Chief Gardener Miles Hunt (left), raise the Union Flag at dawn to mark the 78th Anniversary Ver-sur on June 6, 2022 -Day “D” at the British Normandy Monument overlooking Golden Beach in Mer, France. Today marks the 78th anniversary of the Normandy Landing as part of the Allies’ campaign to liberate France from Nazi Germany’s occupation during World War II, and the first year since the 75th anniversary of a key WWII campaign. Without covid restrictions. (Photo by Kieran Ridley/Getty Images)
This year, Shay handed over the memorial service to Julia Kelly, another Crow Indian, a Gulf War veteran who performed the sage ritual. “Remember, don’t forget,” she said. “Right now, at any time, war is not good.”
Shay’s message to the younger generation is “always be on the lookout”.
“Of course I have to say that they now have to defend the freedom they have,” he said.
Over the past two years, D-Day ceremonies have been reduced to a minimum due to curfews in COVID-19.
This year, crowds of French and foreign visitors, including veterans in their 90s, returned to Normandy to pay tribute to the nearly 160,000 soldiers who came to bring freedom from England, the USA, Canada and elsewhere.
Several thousand people were expected for the ceremony Monday at an American cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach in the French town of Colleville-sur-Mer. Among the dozens of American veterans scheduled to join is 97-year-old Ray Wallace, a former paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division.
On D-Day, his plane was shot down and burned, so he had to jump in sooner than expected. He arrived 32 km from the town of Sainte-Mer-Eglise, the first French village to be liberated from Nazi occupation.
“Then we all got a little scared. Then we were so far away from the other group when the guy fired us. That’s scary,” Wallace told the Associated Press.
Less than a month later, the Germans took him away. He was finally released after 10 months and returned to the US.
But Wallace considers himself lucky.
“I remember my best friend got lost there. So it’s kind of emotional,” she said sadly. “You can say I’m proud of what I did, but I didn’t do that much.”
He was asked about the secret of his long life. “Calvados!” He jokes about the local wine in Normandy.
Paratroopers, on June 6, 1944, after World War II. They parachute from a C-47 DC3 G-ANAF Pegasus in Sainte-Mere-Eglise, June 5, 2022, during the commemoration of the 78th anniversary of the Normandy landings during World War II. (Photo: FRANCOIS MONNIER/AFP via JEAN-Getty Images)
On D-Day, Allied troops landed on the beaches of Omaha, Utah, Juno, Sword, and Gold with 7,000 boats. 4,414 Allied soldiers were killed that day, including 2,501 Americans. More than 5,000 people were injured.
On the German side, several thousand people were killed or wounded.
Wallace, who uses a wheelchair, attended St. He was among nearly 20 WWII veterans who led a military equipment parade in St. Mers Eglise received very high applause from thousands of people in a happy atmosphere. While parents explain to their children the achievements of the heroes of the Great Patriotic War, he did not hide his delight by happily waving to the crowd.
Many history buffs, wearing the military and civilian clothes of the period, also came to re-enact the events.
In Colleville-sur-Mer on Monday, a US Air Force plane was scheduled to fly over an American cemetery during a memorial service in the presence of Chief of Staff General Mark Milley. Here are the graves of 9,386 people who died in the D-Day fighting and subsequent operations.
Dale Thompson, 82, visited the site for the first time over the weekend.
Coming from Florida with his wife, Thompson served in the US Army’s 101st Airborne Division in the early 1960s. He was in the USA and did not see the fight.
Walking among thousands of marble tombstones, Thompson wondered what his reaction would be if he landed on D-Day.
“I try to put myself in their shoes,” he said. “Can I be a hero like these people?”
AP journalists Oleg Cetinich and Jeremias Gonzalez contributed to the story.
Source: Breitbart
