D-Day veterans return to Normandy to mark 81st anniversary of landings

The Pentagon chief said allies should be prepared to fight if danger arises again, and that ‘good men are still needed to stand up’.

US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth salutes as he lays a wreath during a ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery to mark the 81st anniversary of D-Day landings. Picture: Kiran Ridley/Getty Images

Veterans gathered Friday in Normandy to mark the 81st anniversary of the D-Day landings — a pivotal moment of World War II that eventually led to the collapse of Adolf Hitler’s regime.

Along the coastline and near the D-Day landing beaches, tens of thousands of onlookers attended the commemorations, which included parachute jumps, flyovers, remembrance ceremonies, parades, and historical re-enactments.

Many were there to cheer the ever-dwindling number of surviving veterans in their late 90s and older. All remembered the thousands who died.

US Military aircraft perform a flyover to mark the 81st anniversary of the D-Day landings. Picture: Kiran Ridley/Getty Images

Harold Terens, a 101-year-old US veteran who last year married his 96-year-old sweetheart near the D-Day beaches, was back in Normandy.

“Freedom is everything,” he said. “I pray for freedom for the whole world. For the war to end in Ukraine, and Russia, and Sudan and Gaza. I think war is disgusting. Absolutely disgusting.“

Mr Terens enlisted in 1942 and shipped to Britain the following year, attached to a four-pilot P-47 Thunderbolt fighter squadron as their radio repair technician. On D-Day, he helped repair planes returning from France so they could rejoin the battle.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth commemorated the anniversary of the D-Day landings, in which American soldiers played a leading role, with veterans at the American Cemetery overlooking the shore in the village of Colleville-sur-Mer.

US WWII veteran Harold Terens and Jeanne Swerlin at their wedding last year. Picture: AFP

French Minister for the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu told Mr Hegseth that France knows what it owes to its American allies and the veterans who helped free Europe from the Nazis.

“We don’t forget that our oldest allies were there in this grave moment of our history. I say it with deep respect in front of you, veterans, who incarnate this unique friendship between our two countries,” he said.

Mr Hegseth said France and the United States should be prepared to fight if danger arises again, and that “good men are still needed to stand up.”

“Today the United States and France again rally together to confront such threats,“ he said, without mentioning a specific enemy.

“Because we strive for peace, we must prepare for war and hopefully deter it.”

The June 6, 1944, D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied France used the largest-ever armada of ships, troops, planes and vehicles to breach Hitler’s defences in western Europe. A total of 4414 Allied troops were killed on D-Day itself.

In the ensuing Battle of Normandy, 73,000 Allied forces were killed and 153,000 wounded. The battle — and especially Allied bombings of French villages and cities — killed around 20,000 French civilians between June and August 1944.

The exact number of German casualties is unknown, but historians estimate between 4000 and 9000 men were killed, wounded or missing during the D-Day invasion alone.

World War II veteran Jake Larson meets youths during ceremonies at the US cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy. Picture: AP /Thomas Padilla

Nearly 160,000 Allied troops landed on D-Day.

Of those, 73,000 were from the US and 83,000 from Britain and Canada. Forces from several other countries were also involved, including French troops fighting with General Charles de Gaulle. The Allies faced around 50,000 German forces.

More than 2 million Allied soldiers, sailors, pilots, medics and other people from a dozen countries were involved in the overall Operation Overlord, the battle to wrest western France from Nazi control that started on D-Day.

AP