Watch live coverage of the commemorations of the 80th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, France, as World War II veterans from the United States, Britain and Canada mark 80 years since the Allied landings that helped lead to Hitler’s defeat.
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World War II veterans from the U.S., Britain and Canada will join 25 heads of state and many others on the beaches of Normandy today to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
Keeping alive the memory of soldiers ‘who died for our freedom’
Christophe Receveur and his daughter Julie, of France, unfold an American flag he bought six month ago in Gettysburg, Penn., to mark D-Day, Thursday, June 6, 2024 on Utah Beach, Normandy. (AP Photo/John Leicester)
UTAH BEACH, France — As the rising sun took the night’s chill off Utah Beach, Christophe Receveur, 57, from Thionville in eastern France, unfurled a Stars and Stripes he bought in Gettysburg, PA, six months ago specifically to honor the Americans who fell on D-Day.
“To keep alive the memory of the soldiers who died for our freedom,” he said. “To forget them is to let them die all over again.”
Receveur and his daughter, Julie, 28, carefully folded the flag into a tight triangle after their quiet, reflective homage on an empty stretch of the beach, busy with hundreds of people strung out along the sands.
Receveur said the Ukraine war was on his mind, too, as he honored the fallen of WWII. His great grandfather fought in WWI, his grandfather was a prisoner of war in WWII, and his father was a veteran of France’s war in former North African colony Algeria.
“I don’t want our freedom, for our kids, our grandkids, to be hit by … I don’t want to say a madman,” referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “So a lot of respect for these people who died and for those who are still dying,” he said of the WWII dead and those in Ukraine.
He said the D-Day sacrifices have to be remembered. “Lots of emotion that all these troops came to liberate a country that they didn’t know for an ideology — democracy, freedom — that is under severe strain now.”
‘We just have to remember the sacrifices’
A re enactor holds a lantern during a ceremony at Utah Beach near Saint-Martin-de-Vareville Normandy, Thursday, June 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeremias Gonzalez)
UTAH BEACH, France — As the golden sun pierced low clouds over the seas that were thick with landing craft approaching Normandy on D-Day, Becky Kraubetz peered across the English Channel toward her native Britain, her eyes filled with tears as she thought about the scene 80 years ago.
“It’s so historic and we just have to remember the sacrifices of everybody who gave us our freedom,” said Kraubetz, whose grandfather served with the British Army during World War II and was captured in Malta.
“It gives you goosebumps, everything that happened here. Imagine just jumping into the water, freezing cold,” said the 54-year-old who now lives in Florida, as the rays of the morning sun started to warm the hundreds of people who’d waited through the night’s chill for dawn’s break.
“The bravery, the courage, for people to face that is just unbelievable — very, very humbled to be here.”
Centenarian veterans share their memories of D-Day, 80 years later
World War II veterans from the United States, Britain and Canada are in Normandy this week to mark 80 years since the D-Day landings that helped lead to Hitler’s defeat.
Few witnesses remain who remember the Allied assault.
World War II and D-Day veteran Jake Larson visits the grave of a soldier from his unit at the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France, Tuesday, June 4, 2024. World War II veterans from across the United States as well as Britain and Canada are in Normandy this week to mark 80 years since the D-Day landings that helped lead to Hitler’s defeat. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
“Thank you, guys. Thank you.” Sitting in a wheelchair in front of the graves of fallen comrades at the Normandy American Cemetery, D-Day veteran Jake Larson wanted to let them know out loud that they are the real heroes for giving their lives for the liberation of France and Europe from Nazi Germany — not him.
The 101-year-old American, best known on social media under the name “Papa Jake,” with more than 800,000 followers on TikTok, Larson said “I’m a ‘here-to.’
“People say what is a ‘here-to’? I say I’m here to tell you I’m not a hero. It’s those guys up there that gave their life so that I could make it through. That’s what a ‘here-to’ is.”
D-Day veteran Jake Larson
▶ The Associated Press spoke to veterans about their role in freeing Europe from the Nazis, and what messages they have for younger generations.
The sun rises over Normandy beaches as the world remembers D-Day
UTAH BEACH, France — As the sun sets on the D-Day generation, it’s rising again over Normandy beaches where soldiers fought and died exactly 80 years ago, kicking off intense anniversary commemorations Thursday against the backdrop of renewed war in Europe, in Ukraine.
Ever-dwindling numbers of World War II veterans, and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, make this anniversary particularly meaningful, mixing poignant remembrances for D-Day sacrifices with an Allied show of solidarity for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, among the guests.
But host France hasn’t invited World War II ally Russia, citing its “war of aggression against Ukraine that has intensified in recent weeks.”
▶ Read more as anniversary commemorations kick off.
Hundreds gather at dawn at Utah Beach to mark D-Day’s 80th anniversary
Re enactors are sillhouetted against the sunrise at Utah Beach near Saint-Martin-de-Vareville Normandy, Thursday, June 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeremias Gonzalez)
UTAH BEACH, France — Hundreds of people, some in WWII-era uniforms, arrived before dawn to stretch out across the now peaceful sands of Utah Beach, one of the five Allied landing zones on D-Day where troops waded into cold seas through hails of fire exactly 80 years ago.
“It’s our way of paying homage, and better understanding what really happened in the 1944 landings,” said Dimitri Picot, a 33-year-old from the nearby Normandy town of Carentan who works as a rat and pest catcher.
Picot said he often dives on a wrecked ship that was hit and exploded, its wreckage visible Thursday as night gave way to day. Growing up amid the June 6, 1944, landing zones, he said he has become accustomed to seeing walls still pockmarked by bullets, shrapnel and other reminders of that fateful day.
But on the 80th anniversary “to think that they liberated us” hammered home the emotion, he said.
Barred from combat, women working as codebreakers, cartographers and coxswains helped D-Day succeed
The history of D-Day is often told through the stories of the men who fought and died when the Allies stormed the beaches of northern France on June 6, 1944.
But behind the scenes were hundreds of thousands of military women who worked in crucial non-combat roles such as codebreakers, ship plotters, radar operators and cartographers. Often overlooked, their contributions have come into sharper focus as the number of living D-Day veterans dwindles and the world prepares for the 80th anniversary of the landings.
▶ Read more about the women of World War II.
Biden will mark D-Day anniversary in France as Western alliances face threats at home and abroad
United States President Joe Biden will mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion in France as he tries to demonstrate steadfast support for European security at a time when some allies fear Donald Trump threatens to upend American commitments if he wins another term in the White House.
The trip comes as the deadliest fighting on the continent since World War II continues in Ukraine and allied countries struggle to find ways to turn the tide against Russia, which has recently gained ground on the battlefield. It is also set against deepening cracks between the U.S. and many European allies over how to manage the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Biden arrived in Paris on Wednesday morning, and he was welcomed by French officials and an honor guard. On Thursday, he’ll visit hallowed ground near the beaches of Normandy, where rows of bone-white headstones mark the graves of U.S. soldiers who died to bring an end to World War II.
The last WWII vets converge on Normandy for D-Day
Tombstones at the Commonwealth war cemetery of Banneville-La-Campagne, in Normandy, France, were lit up on Tuesday during a ceremony as part of the 80th anniversary of D-Day. (AP Video shot by Laurent Cipriani)
Under their feet, the sands of Omaha Beach, and in their rheumy eyes, tears that inevitably flowed from being on the revered shoreline in Normandy, France, where so many American young men were cut down 80 years ago on D-Day.
Veterans of World War II, many of them centenarians and likely returning to France for one last time, pilgrimaged Tuesday to what was the bloodiest of five Allied landing beaches on June 6, 1944. They remembered fallen friends. They relived horrors they experienced in combat. They blessed their good fortune for surviving. And they mourned those who paid the ultimate price.
They also bore a message for generations behind them, who owe them so much: Don’t forget what we did.
▶ Read more about veterans of World War II.
How AP covered the D-Day landings and lost photographer Bede Irvin in the battle for Normandy
When Associated Press correspondent Don Whitehead arrived with other journalists in southern England to cover the Allies’ imminent D-Day invasion of Normandy, a U.S. commander offered them a no-nonsense welcome.
“We’ll do everything we can to help you get your stories and to take care of you. If you’re wounded, we’ll put you in a hospital. If you’re killed, we’ll bury you. So don’t worry about anything,” said Maj. Gen. Clarence R. Heubner of the U.S. Army 1st Infantry Division.
It was early June 1944 — just before the long-anticipated Normandy landings that ultimately liberated France from Nazi occupation and helped precipitate Nazi Germany’s surrender 11 months later.
▶ Here’s how the day unfolded for The Associated Press reporters, artists and photographers in the air, on the choppy waters of the English Channel, in London, and at English departure ports and airfields.
FILE – This photograph is believed to show E Company, 16th Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, participating in the first wave of assaults during D-Day in Normandy, France, June 6, 1944. The greatest armada ever assembled, nearly 7,000 ships and boats, supported by more than 11,000 planes, carried almost 133,000 troops across the Channel to establish toeholds on five heavily defended beaches stretched across 80 kilometers (50 miles) of Normandy coast. More than 9,000 Allied soldiers were killed or wounded in the first 24 hours. (Chief Photographer’s Mate Robert M. Sargent, U.S. Coast Guard via AP, File)
Mass parachute jump over Normandy kicks off commemorations
Parachutists jumped from World War II-era planes into now peaceful Normandy to kick off a week of ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Soldiers from across the United States, Britain, Canada and other Allied nations waded ashore through hails of fire on five beaches on June 6, 1944. French officials, grateful Normandy survivors and other admirers are saying “merci” but also goodbye to the fast-dwindling number of D-Day veterans still alive. (AP video by Nicolas Garriga/Production by Jeffrey Schaeffer)
Parachutists jumping from World War II-era planes hurled themselves Sunday into now peaceful Normandy skies where war once raged, heralding a week of ceremonies for the fast-disappearing generation of Allied troops who fought from D-Day beaches 80 years ago to Adolf Hitler’s fall, helping free Europe of his tyranny.
In France, D-Day evokes both the joys of liberation and the pain of Normandy’s 20,000 civilian dead
The 80th anniversary of the June 6, 1944, Allied invasion on D-Day that punched through Hitler’s western defenses and helped precipitate Nazi Germany’s surrender 11 months later brings mixed emotions for French survivors of the Battle of Normandy.
They remain eternally grateful for their liberation but cannot forget its steep cost in French lives.
Some 20,000 Normandy civilians were killed in the invasion and as Allied forces fought their way inland, sometimes field-by-field through the leafy Normandy countryside that helped conceal German defenders. Only in late August of 1944 did they reach Paris.
FILE – A British tank makes its way along a street, with the battle still in progress, as the city is still fringed with Nazi guns which continually lob shells into the street, in St. Lo, Normandy, France on June 20, 1944. (AP Photo, File)
▶ Read more about survivors’ mixed emotions.