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Photos of D-Day 75-year memorials show WWII jeeps, fighter planes, and parachuting veterans in Normandy
Photos of D-Day 75-year memorials show WWII jeeps, fighter planes, and parachuting veterans in Normandy
Alexandra MaJun 6, 2019, 17:58 IST
Military re-enactors look on as 280 paratroopers take part in a parachute drop onto fields at Sannerville on June 5, 2019, as part of the D-Day 75th anniverary commemoration.Christopher Furlong/Getty
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Thursday marks the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings at Normandy, France.
Troops from the UK, France, US, and Canada landed on five beaches on the French coast to liberate France from Nazi occupation.
Servicemen, veterans, politicians, and World War II re-enactors gathered in England and France to commemorate the landings with military spectacle.
June 6, 2019, marked the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings at Normandy, where Allied troops invaded the French coast to liberate the country from Nazi occupation.
On this day 75 years ago, a total of 156,000 troops from Britain, France, the US, and Canada landed on five beaches to attack German forces, the start of a campaign to liberate northwestern Europe from the Nazis.
It was the largest naval, air, and land operation ever attempted. On that day alone, some 4,400 allied troops died, and between 4,000 and 9,000 German troops are believed to have died, the BBC reported. Thousands of French civilians also died.
Servicemen, veterans, politicians, and World War II re-enactors gathered in England and France's seasides to commemorate the event on Wednesday and Thursday.
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The affair included a Royal Air Force flypast over Portsmouth, England, nonagenarian veterans parachuting over Normandy, and vintage military jeeps lining up on the beach.
Celebrations started getting underway in both England and France on Wednesday. Here, military jeeps line Arromanches beach in Normandy, France, to prepare for Thursday's celebrations.
In Portsmouth, England, the aeronautics team of Britain's Royal Air Force — known as the Red Arrows — performed a flypast.
People lined the beach in Portsmouth to see the event.
Military veterans also took part in the celebration. 97-year-old US World War II paratrooper veteran Tom Rice made a commemorative parachute jump over Carentan, a small rural town in Normandy, on Wednesday.
Rice served with the 101st Airbone Division during World War II, Reuters reported.
Source: Reuters
"It went perfect," Rice said after his jump, according to Reuters. "Perfect jump."
Two-hundred-and-eighty paratroopers also took part in a parachute jump over Sannerville, France, that same day.
Across the Channel, 95-year-old British D-Day veteran Harry Read also made a commemorative parachute jump on Wednesday. He described his jump as "thoroughly enjoyable."
Read had been 20 years old when he leapt out of his transport aircraft under the cover of darkness with the British 6th Airborne Division, Reuters reported.
"It was a different world then. It was a world that requires young men like myself to be prepared to die for a civilization that was worth living in," Read said, according to the news agency.
"So there was a very heavy necessity for young men like me to put my life on the line," he said. "My life wasn't on the line today."
Source: Reuters
Some 100 miles away, British Prime Minister Theresa May boarded HMS Queen Elizabeth — the country's biggest warship — and waved to British veterans on the MV Boudicca cruise ship, who were leaving for Normandy by sea on Wednesday.
Later in the day, visitors walked past vintage military jeeps lined up on Arromanches beach.
By 10:47 a.m. local time (9:47 a.m. BST), dozens of visitors had thronged the beach to see the vintage vehicles.
WWII-style boats also sailed past the beach as part of the commemoration.
Over on Asnelles Beach in Normandy, visitors dressed up in period fashion danced on the beach next to old military vehicles on display.
And on Collevillette Beach, British bagpipers played music.
It was a fitting tribute to Bill Millin, a Scottish bagpiper who played highland tunes as his fellow troops landed in Normandy — even though the UK War Office had banned the instrument from the front line.
French policemen stood on top of an old bunker to watch over D-Day commemorations at Juno Beach in Normandy.
UK Prime Minister also hosted a joint ceremony to mark the landings with French President Emmanuel Macron at Ver-sur-Mer. May reportedly said "thank you" to the veterans, and Macron said that Britain and France owe them "our freedom," the BBC reported.
US President Donald Trump also took part in the commemoration, joining Macron at Omaha Beach after his trip to the UK and Ireland. Here he appears to place a cap saying "World War II Veteran" on a veteran's head.
House Speaker Nansy Pelosi, Sen. James Lankford, and Sen. John Barraso were also at the event, according to White House pool reporters.
"We come not only because of what they did here, we come because of who they were," Trump told a ceremony alongside Macron.
"Today, America embraces the French people and thanks you for honoring our beloved dead," the US president said.
"We come not only because of what they did here, we come because of who they were. They were young men with their entire lives before them. They were husbands who said goodbye to their young brides and took their duty as their fate."
