Veterans remember ‘longest day’ that changed the course of history
Print Edition
GONE were the screaming shells, seasick soldiers and bloodied waters of 1944. Yesterday, a sun-splattered Normandy celebrated peace, with silent salutes, tears and international friendship marking 70 years since the D-Day invasion helped change the course of World War II and modern history.
Not many of the 150,000 Allied soldiers who slogged onto storm-torn beaches or parachuted into Normandy remain alive to pass on the legacy of that “longest day.” Some survivors stood, somber-faced and proud, alongside US President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande as they paid tribute to history’s biggest amphibious invasion.
The veterans’ hands, which once wrested France from Nazi occupation, saluted wizened faces. Some rose to their feet with difficulty. Thousands of onlookers applauded.
“France will never forget what it owes these soldiers, what it owes the United States,” Hollande said at the Normandy American Cemetery on a bluff overlooking Omaha Beach.
“Vive l’Amerique! Vive la France! And long live the memory of those who fell here for our liberty.”
Taking the stand at a site he called “democracy’s beachhead,” Obama said: “America’s claim — our commitment to liberty, to equality, to freedom, to the inherent dignity of every human being — that claim is written in blood on these beaches, and it will endure for eternity.”
In all, 19 world leaders, more than 1,000 veterans and many others gathered to honor the troops and civilians who fell in mighty battles that helped bring Europe peace and unity.
The D-Day invasion was a turning point in World War II, cracking Hitler’s western front as Soviet troops advanced in the east.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and a few German veterans also took part in the ceremony, as a gesture of the European unity that the Allied victory brought.
A ceremony with Prince Charles at the Cathedral of Bayeux, just south of the beaches, left British veteran Richard England deeply shaken.
“It brought it all back, I’m afraid — all the boys I lost, my brother-in-law who was killed almost at the end, and the lovely chaps that fought with me who were older than me and are no longer with us,” said England, of the 8th Durham Infantry Battalion. “They weren’t here, unfortunately.”
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
