With each passing year, the anniversaries of key events in World War II serve as a reminder of our slow loss of a great generation of Americans. That’s especially true as we begin marking the 80th anniversary of the events that finally ended that terrible conflict.
Last year we celebrated the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the monumental military effort by the U.S. and its allies on June 6, 1944. They struck a powerful blow against Nazi German forces and began paving the way toward the end of World War II in Europe.
This week we are marking the 81st anniversary of D-Day. As always it’s an occasion to celebrate and to mourn.
The Allied forces were able to gain a toehold in France that ultimately enabled them to liberate that country and march toward Germany. Doing so required the greatest armada ever assembled — nearly 7,000 ships and boats, supported by more than 11,000 planes — carrying almost 133,000 troops across the English Channel to establish toeholds on five beaches stretching across 50 miles of the Normandy coast on June 6, 1944. The beaches were defended by around 50,000 German troops.
The operation included actions inland, including overnight parachute landings on strategic German sites and U.S. Army Rangers scaling cliffs to take out German gun positions.
The victory came at a terrible cost. More than 9,000 Allied troops were killed or wounded just in the first 24 hours of the invasion. The first Allied forces to invade charged into a hail of bullets, knowing they were not likely to survive.
In the ensuing Battle of Normandy, 73,000 Allied forces were killed and 153,000 wounded. Around 20,000 French civilians died as well.
Keeping all that in mind, the D-Day anniversary always is a bittersweet occasion, especially in these waning years of the World War II generation.
It’s gratifying to know that some veterans of the Normandy invasion were expected to be in France for this week’s ceremonies, but each year the numbers dwindle.
That’s more true than usual this year. As veterans of D-Day gather in Normandy once again, their numbers are down to a precious few. The exact number of surviving D-Day veterans is unknown, but the U.S. Veterans Administration says about 66,000 veterans, fewer than 0.5% of the 16.4 million Americans who served in the war, were still living at the end of 2024. That percentage is half of the statistic recorded a year earlier.
“The actuarial tables tell us that pretty soon there won’t be a generation,” Rob Citino, a senior historian at The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, told The Associated Press in 2024 as he noted the importance of celebrating “in the presence, and with the wisdom of, the veteran generation that actually fought the war.”
It’s difficult to fathom the loss of these witnesses to history, including the events leading up the war, the brutal conflict itself and the Holocaust inflicted by Nazi Germany on Jews and others.
We are thankful that the survivors are continuing their efforts to share their stories. We have learned through painful experience that people forget all too easily. It’s imperative that we listen to these individuals, remember their stories and pass them on to generations born long after World War II concluded.
A year ago The Associated Press spoke to some of the men who returned to Normandy for the 80th anniversary.
Floyd Blair, 103, a pilot in the Army Air Corps, flew in two support missions across Omaha Beach as the invasion began.
“I saw one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen,” he recalled. “The color of the water changed. Those poor guys on the ground deserve all the credit they can get. The paratroopers, the armored forces, the ground troops. They are the ones.”
Veteran Bob Gibson, 100, landed on Utah Beach in the second wave.
“Some of the young fellows never ever made it to the beach,” he recalled. “It was so bad that we had to run over (them) to get on the beach. That’s how bad it was.”
Les Underwood, 98, a Royal Navy gunner on a British merchant ship that was delivering ammunition to the beaches, saw soldiers drown under the weight of their equipment after leaving their landing craft. “I’ve cried many a time … sat on my own,” Underwood said.
These recollections are priceless. Even the most realistic Hollywood depiction of what happened that day pales in comparison to the memories the veterans carry with them.
We take great comfort in knowing that the tremendous sacrifices made that day were not in vain. Less than a year later, Germany surrendered and the war in Europe was over, great moments from 80 years ago that we will be recounting in the weeks to come.
British Army veteran Ken Hay, 98, made it a point to visit schools to make sure the experiences of those who fought and died to end the Nazi grip on Europe live forever.
“We (veterans) are a tangible interpretation of what they read in the books, what they’ve heard from their parents, what their parents remember their grandparents saying.” Hay told the AP.
We salute those who fought for freedom eight decades ago, on the D-Day anniversary and every day.
