6 June 2014 - D-Day was 70 years ago
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D-Day 70th anniversary: Seven decades on, a band of brothers meet to pay their respects one last time
John Lichfield (The Guardian)
Age had finally wearied them. They marched proudly on Sword Beach with stiff legs, bent backs and, in some cases, tears in their eyes.
After decades of annual pilgrimages to the beaches, towns and fields where their friends died, British Normandy veterans gathered for a private ceremony of remembrance for the last time. There were 150 of them – with a combined age of around 13,500.
Media coverage of Friday’s 70th anniversary of D-Day will focus on the grandiose “international event” organised by France, to be held this afternoon at the other end of the beach. The Queen, Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel, François Hollande and many other leaders will pay tribute to the 200,000 British, American and Canadian men – and the handful of women – who took part in the largest seaborne invasion of all time.
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Remembering
Gordon Rayner (The Telegraph)
At the going down of the sun they were remembered, the scale of their sacrifice symbolised by a mass of Union flags fluttering in the breeze on Gold Beach, Normandy.
Cyril Ager, an 89-year-old former Royal Engineers sapper who landed on the beach at 7am on D-Day 70 years ago, stood to attention as he surveyed the 22,000 flags planted at the quiet resort of Asnelles.
Each of them carried a message to those who took part in the greatest amphibious assault in history. Most were simple expressions of thanks from strangers, but some were very personal, to relations who had failed to return. “My dad was killed on 21st June and my thoughts are with him,” wrote one. Another paid tribute to Jack Hornby, a veteran who died a week short of his 90th birthday on April 22 this year.
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Story and History
Richard Norton-Taylor (The Guardian)
Richard Norton-Taylor was born on D-day, with his mother going into labour just after hearing of the landings. Photograph: Guardian
I was born on D-day afternoon, emerging as the rest of the country begun to take in the significance of the largest seaborne invasion in history and one of the best kept secrets in modern warfare. My mother heard about the Normandy landings on the radio just before going into labour. She remembered seeing "all the planes flying very low overhead with special Allied markings on the wings".
"I was worried as the matron kept coming in to inquire what I was going to call my son," my mother told me. "I thought that something must be wrong with the baby – but the press had been calling to see if any boys had been born that day, and was I going to christen him Bernard [after Montgomery] or Dwight [after Eisenhower]?" Monty might have been even worse.
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Key question
David Zucchino (The Chicago Tribune)
Why is it called D-day?
Decision Day? Doomsday? Dreadnought Day?
None of the above. The D simply stands for "day."
The designation was traditionally used for the date of any important military operation or invasion, according to the National World War II Museum.
Thus, the day before June 6, 1944, was known as D-1 and the days after were D+1, D+2, D+ and so on.
D-day, which had the code name Operation Overlord, reversed the course of World War II, breaking the Nazis’ grip on France and setting the stage for the liberation of Europe.
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"6 June 2014 - D-Day was 70 years ago", La Clé des Langues [en ligne], Lyon, ENS de LYON/DGESCO (ISSN 2107-7029), juin 2014. Consulté le 25/04/2024. URL: https://cle.ens-lyon.fr/anglais/key-story/archives-revue-de-presse-2014/6-june-2014-d-day-was-70-years-ago