D-Day remembrance endures despite limits
Associated Press
CARENTAN, France – In a small Normandy town where paratroopers landed in the early hours of D-Day, applause broke the silence to honor Charles Shay. He was the only veteran attending a ceremony in Carentan commemorating the 77th anniversary of the assault that helped bring an end to World War II.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, this year s D-Day commemorations are taking place with travel restrictions that have prevented veterans or families of fallen soldiers from the U.S., Britain and other allied countries from making the trip to France. Only a few officials were allowed exceptions.
On June 6, 1944, the Allies invaded German-occupied western Europe by way of Normandy, France, during World War II. It would become the turning point of the war, and the largest sea, land and air invasion in history.
From D-Day through August 21, the Allies sent more than two million soldiers into northern France and suffered more than 226,386 casualties. The Allied countries included the United States, Great Britain, France, Canada, Australia and China.
There are numerous monuments across Normandy’s beaches and inland to honor those who lost their lives. There is also the Normandy American Cemetery.
More than 160,000 Allied troops landed along the 50-mile stretch of French coastline on D-Day to fight Nazi Germany on the Normandy beaches.
COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France (AP) - When the sun rises over Omaha Beach, revealing vast stretches of wet sand extending toward distant cliffs, one starts to grasp the immensity of the task faced by Allied soldiers on D-Day, landing on the Nazi-occupied Normandy shore.