it's great pleasure, we needed it!" she said. Sitting in an old sidecar, Audrey Ergas, dressed in a vintage uniform including an aviator hat and glasses, said she used to come every year from the southern city of Marseille, except for last year due to virus travel restrictions. Residents, some waving French and American flags, came to watch. On Saturday morning, people in dozens of Second World War vehicles, from motorcycles to jeeps and trucks, gathered in a field in Colleville-Montgomery to parade down the nearby roads along Sword Beach to the sounds of a pipe band. And I don't think the French people will ever forget." "And they remember what they did for them. "In France, people who remember these men, they kept them close to their heart," Shay said. Some French and a few other Second World War history enthusiasts from neighbouring European countries gathered in Normandy.ĭriving restored jeeps, dressed in old uniforms or joyfully eating at the newly reopened terraces of restaurants, they're contributing to revive the commemorations' special atmosphere - and keeping alive the memory of June 6, 1944. Local residents, however, are coming in greater numbers than last year, as France started lifting its internal virus restrictions last month. A few solemn ceremonies have been maintained, with dignitaries and a few guests only. So for the second year in a row, most public commemoration events have been cancelled. While France is planning to open up to vaccinated visitors starting next week, that comes too late for the D-Day anniversary. Only one veteran now remains from the French commando unit that joined U.S, British, Canadian and other allied troops in storming Normandy's code-named beaches. Shay's lone presence is all the more poignant as the number of survivors of the epochal battle dwindles. And I hope it will be over soon," he told The Associated Press in Carentan. "We have no visitors coming to France this year for two years now. Shay regretted that the pandemic "is interrupting everything." He is expected to be the only veteran at Sunday's anniversary day ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery of Colleville-sur-Mer. Under a bright sun, the 96-year-old Native American from Indian Island, Maine, stood steadily while the hymns of the Allied countries were being played Friday in front of the monument commemorating the assault in Carentan that allowed the Allies to establish a continuous front joining nearby Utah Beach to Omaha Beach. Today, he recalls the "many good friends" he lost on the battlefield. Army medic when he landed on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. Shay, who now lives in Normandy, was a 19-year-old U.S. Only a few officials were allowed exceptions. He was the only veteran attending a ceremony in Carentan commemorating the 77th anniversary of the assault that helped bring an end to the Second World War.Īmid 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. In a small Normandy town where paratroopers landed in the early hours of D-Day, applause broke the silence to honor Charles Shay.
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