D-Day’s 80th anniversary
“This is a lot more agreeable than my first trip to Normandy,” 98-year-old Canadian veteran, George Couture, told Le Parisien this morning, as he arrived on the northern French coast to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
Couture – who was taken prisoner for 11 months following the D-Day landings – is one of around 200 Second World War veterans in Normandy today, alongside 25 world leaders and the King of England, to attend commemoration ceremonies.
Patrick Barrow has penned a moving piece in Reaction on the bravery of young Allied men who landed on the beaches of Normandy on 6 June, 1944, to begin the long and costly campaign of liberating north-west Europe from Nazi occupation.
The invasion included 7,000 ships and landing craft manned by over 195,000 naval personnel from eight allied countries. Almost 133,000 troops from the US, the British Commonwealth, and their allies, landed on D-Day. Casualties from these countries during the landing numbered 10,300.
Exactly eighty years on, there is no shortage of costume-clad re-enactors, enthusiastically descending on Normandy to live out their passion for Second World War history. Yet the number of real-life, surviving D-Day veterans is dwindling.
Five years ago, 225 British veterans travelled to Normandy for commemorations. This year, there were just 23 in attendance.
Most survivors are now around 100. Which means, as Anthony Peters points out, that today’s 80th D-Day commemoration may well be the last major anniversary where those who actually took part in the landings will be present.
This afternoon, among the 25 heads of state attending an international memorial ceremony on Normandy’s Omaha Beach, was, for the first time, Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky.
It may seem strange now to recall that, as recently as 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin flew to Normandy to attend the international D-Day ceremony on Utah Beach.
Of course, Putin’s prior attendance is unsurprising. After all, the Soviet Union contributed mightily to the defeat of the Nazis.
Yet, this year, as the shadow of war again looms over the continent, leaders drew parallels between the Allied men on 6 June, 1944 and Ukrainians today.
“Ukraine has been invaded by a tyrant bent on domination,” said Joe Biden, addressing an audience on Omaha Beach. The US President paid tribute to the sacrifices made by D-Day veterans in the name of freedom and democracy. Ukrainians, he added, embody the same struggle.
Write to us with your comments to be considered for publication at letters@reaction.life