Parachutists salute D-Day
2004-06-05 18:36
Caen, France - Hundreds of British and American parachutists dropped into northwestern France on Saturday to launch poignant commemorations of the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, which hastened the end of World War II.
At the western end of the coast where the liberation of Europe from Nazi occupation began, grey parachutes blossomed open in lead-grey skies in a spectacular re-enactment of the capture by the US 82nd Airborne Division of the village of Sainte-Mere-Eglise.
The aim was to seize the village at 01:00, five hours before 135 000 Allied troops began landing on the 100km beaches to launch the largest seaborne invasion in history.
Sainte-Mere-Eglise was the first village liberated, but many of the US soldiers who dropped there, carrying heavy guns and other equipment, drowned in deep ditches and flooded land before they could even fire a shot.
At the village of Ranville, members of the British First Parachute Regiment were to re-enact the legendary operation to capture Pegasus Bridge across the Orne River and secure the eastern flank of the beach landings.
Wooden gliders
Britain's Prince Charles paid tribute to the 90 paratroopers who flew in darkness aboard three wooden gliders and crash-landed just after midnight on or close to the bridge in a surprise attack which has entered the annals of military history. They were among 380 British gliders that floated into Normandy that night.
Other parachute drops were scheduled to commemorate the US 101st Airborne, which suffered serious losses near Omaha Beach.
Except at Omaha, the landings commanded by US General Dwight D Eisenhower were an unqualified success, leading to the fall of Normandy in late July and then the Allied sweep through northern France into Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.
Operation Overlord, as it was dubbed, had been in the planning since August 1943 and was meticulous and imaginative in its scope and detail. A huge disinformation campaign including phoney generals and fake armies fooled Adolf Hitler into thinking the invasion when it came would be further north.
But four thousand Allied troops were killed on the five beaches on the first day and another 55 000 were to die in the Normandy campaign.
More than 20 world leaders will attend a ceremony on Sunday, including US President George W Bush, French President Jacques Chirac and Britain's Queen Elizabeth II.
For the first time, they will stand alongside the leaders of Germany and Russia, putting the accent heavily on reconciliation, aiming to lay to rest the ghosts of the past, and rebuild ties badly frayed by the US-led war on Iraq.
Chirac, a staunch opponent of the war on Iraq, thanked Americans for helping to liberate Nazi-occupied France 60 years ago.
"The French say 'Thank You' to the Americans and they will not forget what they have done 60 years ago," he said an interview given in English to the NBC television channel.