COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France (AP) — It was a day of pride,
remembrance and honors for those who waded through blood-tinged waves,
climbed razor-sharp cliffs or fell from the skies, staring down death or
dying in an invasion that portended the fall of the Third Reich and the
end of World War II.
It was also a day of high diplomacy for a Europe not completely at peace.
After
70 years, a dwindling number of veterans, civilian survivors of the
brutal battle for Normandy, and 19 world leaders and monarchs celebrated
on Friday the sacrifices of D-Day, an assault never matched for its
size, planning and derring-do.
The events spread across the
beaches and lush farmlands of Normandy, in western France, had an added
sense of urgency this year: It would be the last grand commemoration for
many of the veterans, whether they relived the anniversary at home in
silence or were among the some 1,000 who crossed continents to be
present despite their frail age.
For President Barack Obama,
transmitting the memory of their "longest day" means keeping intact the
values that veterans fought and died for.
"When the war was won,
we claimed no spoils of victory — we helped Europe rebuild," Obama said
in a speech at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. It is the
site where 9,387 fallen soldiers rest under white marble tombstones on a
bluff above Omaha Beach, the bloodiest among five beach landings by
U.S. and British troops.
"This was democracy’s beachhead," he said, assuring veterans that "your legacy is in good
hands."
F-15 jets flew over the cemetery in missing-man formation, a 21 gun salute boomed and taps sounded.
The
day of gratitude drew royals including Queen Elizabeth II of England,
who dined at the French presidential palace in the evening, and the king
of the Netherlands, Willem-Alexander, as well as political leaders from
across Europe. German Chancellor Angela Merkel also joined in, along
with a small group of German soldiers, as a sign of European unity.
Both
symbolism and pragmatism were on French President Francois Hollande’s
agenda. With an invitation to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had
been elbowed out of G-7 talks a day earlier, the ceremonies also became a
moment to try to deflate the tense situation in Ukraine. The West fears
the ongoing fighting there could fan a new Cold War with Moscow, which
has annexed the eastern Ukraine region of Crimea.
Hollande’s invitation to Ukraine’s president-elect gave impetus to a diplomatic ballet of meetings behind
the scenes.
Putin,
who was present as a tribute to the Russian loss of more than 20
million troops in WWII — the largest among Allies — met with Petro
Poroshenko and Obama on the sidelines of the event. Obama met privately,
and briefly, with Putin.
"It is because France itself experienced
the barbarity (of war) that it feels a duty to preserve peace
everywhere, at the frontiers of Europe as in Africa," Hollande said.
Dancers
re-enacted the drama of the Nazi takeover and battles across Europe
against Hitler’s forces on a stage at Sword Beach, one of the landing
points near Ouistreham, a small port where British troops landed and
fought their way to Pegasus Bridge, a key route. Ouistreham was the site
of the main international ceremony.
It was 6:30 a.m. on June 6,
1944, when soldiers started wading ashore.
Operation Overlord, as the
invasion by U.S., British, Canadian and Polish forces was codenamed, was
the first step in breaching Hitler’s stranglehold on France and Europe.
Besides Sword and Omaha, Allied forces landed on Utah, Juno and Gold
beaches — all codenames.
Ahead of the landing, the U.S. Army’s 2nd
Ranger Battalion went in with the 5th Battalion Rangers, scaling the
craggy cliffs of Point du Hoc to put out of action six 155mm Nazi
howitzers that could target landing areas. Paratroopers from the 101st
Airborne division jumped into dark skies, some getting lost in
hedgerows, shot down or caught in trees.
At least 4,400 Allied
troops were killed the first day, and many thousands more in the ensuing
Battle of Normandy that opened the Allied march to Paris to liberate
the Nazi-occupied French capital in August. Another August assault was
launched by forces from North Africa into southern France.
"They
left home barely more than boys. They came home heroes," Obama said at
an observation deck in Colleville, overlooking Omaha Beach.
Seven decades later, gratitude for life is a theme that runs through some veterans’ recollections.
"I
was lucky I survived," said U.S. veteran Oscar Peterson, 92, who fought
with the 2nd Infantry Division, during his visit to Colleville. At the
time, he said "I would say that if I could survive this, I’ll work the
rest of my life for nothing to be alive."
Clair Martin, 93, of San
Diego, California, landed on D-Day with the 29th Infantry Division and
said he kept fighting until he reached the Elbe River in Germany the
following April. "I praise God I made it and that we’ve never had
another World War," he said.
While many of the fallen in the
Battle of Normandy — Americans, British, Polish and even Germans — lie
in manicured cemeteries, some victims have been largely forgotten — the
French.
Allied bombardments killed an estimated 20,000 French
civilians, and Hollande paid tribute to them Friday in Caen, largely
destroyed in the bombings like many Normandy cities.
The Vichy
government which collaborated with the Nazis — and which France took
decades to admit represented the state — used the bombings as a
propaganda tool, burying the extent of fatalities. Historians now
believe that nearly as many French civilians died in Allied air raids as
Britons during the German Blitz.
"This battle was also a battle
of civilians," Hollande said. Normandy’s residents "helped the victory
happen. They opened their doors to the liberators."
U.S. veteran
Jack Schlegel, 91, of Albany, New York, who fought in the 508th
Parachutist Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne, paid tribute to those who
survived and are transmitting the D-Day message.
"I love,
especially in this area, the patriotism I can see, that you’re so
thankful that the Allies … helped liberate this country from the Nazis
and giving the younger children a chance to grow up without this
oppression."
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Ganley reported from Paris. AP writers Lori
Hinnant and Julie Pace contributed from Ouistreham; Catherine Gaschka
contributed from Colleville-Sur-Mer.