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Normandy prepares for D-Day anniversary
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-06-06 08:49
World War II veterans and dignitaries were gathering in Normandy for
ceremonies Monday to honor the sacrifices of Allied soldiers who died in the
D-Day landings 61 years ago.
Dozens of ceremonies were planned to commemorate those who fought and died on
the five blood-soaked beaches during the June 6, 1944, siege that marked the
beginning of the end of the Nazi regime.
French and American officials planned a tribute with a church choir and band
at the Normandy American cemetery in the town of Colleville-sur-Mer, where 9,387
fallen U.S. fighters are buried. Parades, wreath-laying ceremonies and concerts
were scheduled in many towns and villages in a region.
Comrades watch as American parachutists jump
over Sainte-Mere-Eglise, northern France, Sunday, June 5, 2005, to
commemorate the Allied D-Day landings of World War II. Rain dampened plans
for about 150 military parachutists, with Germans taking part for the
first time, to leap over the first Normandy town freed from the Nazi grip
on June 6, 1944.[AP] | American parachutists
dropped into the town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise on Sunday but rain led officials to
cancel the jumps of French and German parachutists in a commemoration that was
to include Germans for the first time. The town was the first liberated by U.S.
forces in Normandy.
Hoping to strike a spirit of unity, Mayor Marc Lefevre invited about 40
German parachutists to take part — but building support for his idea was not
easy in his town.
German parachutists walk past the church at
Sainte-Mere-Eglise, northern France, Sunday, June 5, 2005, during
ceremonies to commemorate the Allied D-Day landings of World War II.
[AP] | "Many people asked me what was going through my head," Lefevre said. "We need
to know how to turn the page, and welcome the Germans without rancor."
Though the rain prevented some of the jumps, hundreds of spectators,
including some World War II veterans, peered skyward to watch the American
parachutists.
"It's always moving to see this," said 82-year-old spectator Shifty Power
from Virginia who parachuted in on D-Day with the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne
Division. "It's good for Germans also to take part — it's important for peace in
the world."
About 156,000 Allied soldiers — mostly American, British and Canadian — took
part in the invasion, storming in from the English Channel and opening a Western
front against the Nazis.
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