Current:Home > StocksSignalHub-A mass parachute jump over Normandy kicks off commemorations for the 80th anniversary of D-Day -Excel Wealth Summit
SignalHub-A mass parachute jump over Normandy kicks off commemorations for the 80th anniversary of D-Day
Poinbank View
Date:2025-04-10 16:58:36
CARENTAN-LES-MARAIS,SignalHub France (AP) — 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.
All along the Normandy coastline — where then-young 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.
The ever-dwindling number of veterans in their late nineties and older who are coming back to remember fallen friends and their history-changing exploits are the last.
Part of the purpose of fireworks shows, parachute jumps, solemn commemorations and ceremonies that world leaders will attend this week is to pass the baton of remembrance to the current generations now seeing war again in Europe, in Ukraine. U.S. President Joe Biden, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and British royals are among the VIPs that France is expecting for the D-Day events.
On Sunday, three C-47 transport planes, a workhorse of the war, dropped three long strings of jumpers, their round chutes mushrooming open in the blue skies with puffy white clouds, to whoops from the huge crowd that was regaled by tunes from Glenn Miller and Edith Piaf as they waited.
The planes looped around and dropped another three sticks of jumpers. Some of the loudest applause from the crowd arose when a startled deer pounced from the undergrowth as the jumpers were landing and sprinted across the landing zone.
After a final pass to drop two last jumpers, the planes then roared overhead in close formation and disappeared over the horizon.
Dozens of World War II veterans are converging on France to revisit old memories, make new ones, and hammer home a message that survivors of D-Day and the ensuing Battle of Normandy, and of other World War II theaters, have repeated time and time again — that war is hell.
“Seven thousand of my marine buddies were killed. Twenty thousand shot up, wounded, put on ships, buried at sea,” said Don Graves, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served in Iwo Jima in the Pacific theater.
“I want the younger people, the younger generation here to know what we did,” said Graves, part of a group of more than 60 World War II veterans who flew into Paris on Saturday.
The youngest veteran in the group is 96 and the most senior 107, according to their carrier from Dallas, American Airlines.
“We did our job and we came home and that’s it. We never talked about it I think. For 70 years I didn’t talk about it,” said another of the veterans, Ralph Goldsticker, a U.S. Air Force captain who served in the 452nd Bomb Group.
Of the D-Day landings, he recalled seeing from his aircraft “a big, big chunk of the beach with thousands of vessels,” and spoke of bombing raids against German strongholds and routes that German forces might otherwise have used to rush in reinforcements to push the invasion back into the sea.
“I dropped my first bomb at 06:58 a.m. in a heavy gun placement,” he said. “We went back home, we landed at 09:30. We reloaded.”
___
Associated Press writer Jeffrey Schaeffer in Paris contributed to this report.
veryGood! (635)
Related
- The city of Chicago is ordered to pay nearly $80M for a police chase that killed a 10
- Biden Tightens Auto Emissions Standards, Reversing Trump, and Aims for a Quantum Leap on Electric Vehicles by 2030
- Four key takeaways from McDonald's layoffs
- The Fed's radical new bank band-aid
- Who are the most valuable sports franchises? Forbes releases new list of top 50 teams
- Senate Votes to Ratify the Kigali Amendment, Joining 137 Nations in an Effort to Curb Global Warming
- Anne Arundel County Wants the Navy’s Greenbury Point to Remain a Wetland, Not Become an 18-Hole Golf Course
- Hawaii's lawmakers mull imposing fees to pay for ecotourism crush
- Paula Abdul settles lawsuit with former 'So You Think You Can Dance' co
- New Mexico Could Be the Fourth State to Add a Green Amendment to Its Constitution, But Time Is Short
Ranking
- EU countries double down on a halt to Syrian asylum claims but will not yet send people back
- Texas’ Wildfire Risks, Amplified by Climate Change, Are Second Only to California’s
- 1000-Lb Sisters' Tammy Slaton Shares Photo of Her Transformation After 180-Pound Weight Loss
- Biden names CIA Director William Burns to his cabinet
- Sonya Massey's father decries possible release of former deputy charged with her death
- Jada Pinkett Smith Teases Possible Return of Red Table Talk After Meta Cancelation
- Corn-Based Ethanol May Be Worse For the Climate Than Gasoline, a New Study Finds
- Shawn Johnson East Shares the Kitchen Hacks That Make Her Life Easier as a Busy Mom
Recommendation
From family road trips to travel woes: Americans are navigating skyrocketing holiday costs
California Regulators Banned Fracking Wastewater for Irrigation, but Allow Wastewater From Oil Drilling. Scientists Say There’s Little Difference
Your banking questions, answered
DC Young Fly Shares How He Cries All the Time Over Jacky Oh's Death
Who's hosting 'Saturday Night Live' tonight? Musical guest, how to watch Dec. 14 episode
As States Move to Electrify Their Fleets, Activists Demand Greater Environmental Justice Focus
DC Young Fly Shares How He Cries All the Time Over Jacky Oh's Death
A Climate-Driven Decline of Tiny Dryland Lichens Could Have Big Global Impacts