Many visitors this year came to see the monuments marking the key moments of the fight and to show their gratitude to the soldiers. World War II history enthusiasts dressed in wartime uniforms were seen in jeeps and military vehicles on the small roads of Normandy.
Greg Jensen, 51, came with his 20-year-old daughter from Dallas. On Saturday they visited the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial overlooking Omaha Beach.
"It took a moment just to hold the sand and you think, gosh, the blood that was spilled to give me that moment and the freedom to hold that sand," he said. "That was vey emotional for me."
"I hope a lot of this younger generation is watching because we can't forget what happened 78 years ago," Jensen said, especially thinking of the war in Ukraine.
Andy Hamilton, a 57-year-old retired police officer, came on holiday with his family, including his two 8-year-old grandsons, from Shropshire, England.
"We're now showing our respects of the sites here and to give the grandchildren a sense of what World War II was like .. and the amount of people that had given their lives to sacrifice for the freedom of everyone," he said.
On D-Day, Allied troops landed on the beaches code-named Omaha, Utah, Sword, Juno and Gold, carried there by 7,000 boats. On that single day, 4,414 Allied soldiers lost their lives, 2,501 of them were Americans. More than 5,000 were wounded. On the German side, several thousand were killed and wounded.
--GreGen
No comments:
Post a Comment