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D-Day Veterans and Officials Gather in Normandy for 81st Anniversary Commemorations

Veterans’ testimonies underscored the scale of Allied sacrifice with echoed calls for preserving their legacy.

Wally King, a 101-year-old former U.S. fighter pilot who flew 75 combat missions in World War II, and his granddaughter Kara Houser pay their respects Monday, June 2, 2025 in Colleville-sur-Mer, at the Normandy American Cemetery grave of Henry Shurlds Jr., who flew P-47 "Thunderbolt" fighters like King and was shot down and killed on Aug. 19, 1944, above the town of Verneuil-sur-Seine, northwest of Paris. (AP Photo/John Leicester).
American soldiers go ashore during the Normand landing operations on D-Day, June 6, 1944. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)
World War II veterans, mostly centenarians, who traveled as a group to France with the non-profit Best Defense Foundation, pose for a photo on Monday, June 2, 2025, at a memorial on Omaha beach, which was one of the D-D-day invasion spots on June 6, 1944. (AP Photo/John Leicester)
A black and white photo that Kara Houser, the granddaughter of a World War II veteran, pinned to her chest during a visit on Monday, June 2, 2025 in Colleville-sur-Mer, to the Normandy American Cemetery shows Fred Mitchell Shafer, who Houser said served aboard one of the landing craft that deposited American soldiers on Omaha Beach during the June 6, 1944, D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied France (AP Photo/John Leicester)

Overview

  • Tens of thousands of spectators attended remembrance ceremonies, parachute jumps and historical re-enactments along Normandy’s five landing beaches on June 6.
  • Surviving veterans in their late 90s and early 100s, including Ken Hay, John Dennett and Henry Rice, laid wreaths and shared personal accounts of the 1944 invasion.
  • US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, UK Defense Secretary John Healey and Lt. Gen. Jason T. Hinds praised Allied resolve and urged modern leaders to uphold the same commitment to freedom.
  • The 1944 operation mobilized nearly 160,000 troops, over 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft, resulting in 4,414 Allied deaths on D-Day and tens of thousands more casualties in the Battle of Normandy.
  • A Royal Navy chaplain and veterans warned of threats to peace today and stressed that the D-Day legacy remains vital in current global conflicts to ensure freedom and international cooperation.