Biden linked the D-Day invasion to the Ukraine conflict
A 1940s Jeep that Towed on a Trailer to Normandy for a D-Day Annihilation: How cool is it to drive a seashore?
NORMANDY, France — The Normandy coast looks like a Hollywood movie set this time of year. Maybe it is a time warp. Did a 1940s truck full of American GIs just barrel past? Yes, it did! Welcome to Normandy on a D-Day anniversary, when thousands of people from across Europe and beyond descend on a string of tiny seaside towns and beaches to commemorate the 1944 Allied landing and, for some, to live out their passion for World War II history.
Frenchman Jacquy Patrice is here with his wife Dorothé and some friends. They are dressed as soldiers, a nurse and a Women’s Army Corps member. He says they come every year dressed up. It is quite poignant for us to dress like the American soldiers who liberated us.
The group traveled from the Picardy region of France, some 300 miles away. They towed their 1940s jeep on a trailer. It’s wonderful. We follow the same path of the GIs and it’s really moving,” Jacquy Patrice says. The small roads are clogged with thousands of such World War II-era vehicles ferrying enthusiastic passengers, driving down narrow lanes and the pathways of history.
World War II: Omaha Beach, the Deadliest Place of the D-Day Invasion, and the Memory of President Biden, who saved Europe from Nazi Germany
President Biden marked the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion that helped liberate Europe from Nazi Germany on Thursday, attending a ceremony at Normandy American Cemetery alongside French President Emmanuel Macron.
A choir performs outside on a plaza overlooking Gold Beach to pay homage to the people who saved them.
“Living here and being surrounded by the beaches and the ambience, and the museums all year long makes this moment especially important as we think about what happened here 80 years ago.”
More than 150,000 Allied troops landed at Normandy, including 73,000 from the United States landing at Omaha and Utah beaches, and thousands of other British and Canadian forces. Thousands more were listed as missing or wounded after thousands of Allied troops were killed.
Ben Brands, a historian with the American Battlefield Monuments Commission, says Omaha was the deadliest of all the invasion beaches.
“Almost 800 Americans died on June 6 on Omaha Beach, just on the other side of this cemetery,” he says, explaining it was partly because of the bluffs and the soldiers met with heavier resistance than expected.
“But eventually small units led by junior soldiers taking the initiative were able to get off that beach and open up the Draws [cuts between the cliffs] and get them off the beach,” Brands says. That was the way D-Day was won. By those incredibly heroic actions by small groups of men under extremely trying circumstances.”
Source: Reflections on war past and present permeate D-Day’s 80th anniversary
How Europe Has Learned to Make Sense of World War II: Marco Righini, President Francois Diophantine, Andreev Zelenskyy
The commemorations show how times have changed. The Germans were invited to participate in the ceremony for the first time. German Chancellor said, ” Europe has learned its lesson, and we Germans will not shirk from it.” French President Jacques Chirac responded: “The French receive you more than ever as a friend. They’re a brother to you.
Russian President Putin was in attendance every year from that year onwards. Even though the Soviet Union contributed mightily to the defeat of the Nazis, this year Putin is persona non grata, as the shadow of war again hangs over the continent, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Many people who came to celebrate don’t care about that.
Marco Righini is standing on the bluff looking down at the beach from the American cemetery. He has traveled with his World War II reenactment group from Italy. He is dressed in the wool uniform and jaunty checkered cap of a Scottish regiment, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. “This was the army field photographic unit that took pictures and movies for the British army,” he says.
Righini says there’s a strange feeling to the commemoration this year. “I see lots of similarities today with right before the beginning of the Second World War, when Hitler took part of Czechoslovakia,” he says.
Europe should do more for the people of Ukraine, according to a Frenchman dressed up as a GI. “Russia was once our ally but no longer has its place here,” he says. Guilbert finds many similarities to World War II.
Ukrainian flags go with the Allied nations’ colors. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will attend D-Day commemorations for the first time, and will meet President Biden on the sidelines of the ceremonies.
“Part of the reason World War II happened is Europe’s inaction,” he says. In 1936 and 1938 the German army was not prepared and the other European armies were superior in number and materiel. And today the Russian army doesn’t have what it takes to fight Western armies so we must act now.”
Charles Djou, the secretary of the American Battlefields Monument Commission, says what’s happening today is a timely reminder of the importance of the trans-Atlantic alliance and of U.S. values.
He says that what happened here 80 years ago is relevant in today’s world of increased aggression from global powers. The U.S. is a nation that fights for freedom and for liberty, but we do not fight for conquest or to take from other peoples. We fight for democracy.”
Among those attending this year are a group of 13 Canadian veterans who are spending a week here to mark the anniversary, according to France’s Le Parisien newspaper. One of the group, 98-year-old Canadian American George Couture, was taken prisoner for 11 months after the D-Day landing.
When dozens of World War II veterans arrived in France this week, they were all welcomed as heroes, and were also at the ceremony paying respects to veterans who lost their lives.
Biden told the veterans that it’s the highest honor to salute them here in Normandy.
In his speech to the ex-service members, Macron said “Here you came, to join our efforts with your own soldiers and to make France a free nation.” “And you are back here today — at home, if I may say.”
The crowd applauded as a group of veterans were presented with the highest decoration in France, the Legion of Honor. On the shore of Omaha Beach lies the cemetery and its memorial, which are close to where more than 150,000 U.S. and allied troops came down in a massive amphibious assault.
D-Day in Ukraine: The Rise and Fall of the Americas, the Almighty and the Heroes of the Second Day of Asymptotic Freedom
As it evoked the historic and bloody day, the event also took note of a current conflict: Europe is once again a place of war, as Russia seeks to punish neighboring Ukraine.
Biden said that the U.S., NATO and its allies will not walk away from Ukrainians. He warned of a ripple effect of violence and aggression, should Russian succeed in subjugating Ukraine.
The world is watching the events in Ukraine closely to see if we let this illegal aggression go unaddressed. We cannot let that happen.”
“We still seek a world where aggression is a sin and where human rights are sacred and where all people can live in freedom,” Austin said. “At this time in history, we must again stand firm against aggression and tyranny.”
Biden urged Americans to not forget that lesson, because what the allies did 80 years ago surpassed anything we could have done on our own.
He said that they won the war together. Europe was rebuilt by our former enemies. It was an investment in what became [a] shared and a prosperous future.”
“Isolationism was not the answer 80 years ago and is not the answer today,” Biden said. “We know the dark forces that these heroes fought against 80 years ago. They never stop being aggressive and greedy, they want to change borders by force. These are not new.
The price of tyranny is the blood of the young and the brave, said Biden. “In their generation, in their hour of trial, the Allied forces of D-Day did their duty. Now the question for us is, can we do it in our hour of trial?
