CARENTAN, France (AP) — In the small Normandy town where paratroopers landed in the early hours of the morning during the Normandy invasion, applause broke the silence to honor Charles Shea. He was the only veteran at a ceremony in Carentan marking the 77th anniversary of the attack that helped end World War II.
This year’s commemoration of the Normandy landings is being held in France under travel restrictions barring veterans and families of those killed in the fighting from the U.S., Britain and other allied nations from traveling due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Only a few people have been granted exceptions.
Shay, who now lives in Normandy, was a 19-year-old U.S. Army medic when he landed on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. He now remembers “a lot of good friends” who died on the battlefield.
Under bright sunshine, the 96-year-old Penobscot Native American from Indian Island, Maine, stood still Friday as Confederate hymns played in front of a monument commemorating the attack on Carentan that allowed Confederate forces to establish a continuous battle line from nearby Utah Beach to Omaha Beach.
Shea said he regrets the pandemic has “put everything on hold.” He will be the only veteran attending a Remembrance Day ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer on Sunday.
“We haven’t had any tourists in France for two years now and we hope this situation will end soon,” he told The Associated Press in Carentan.
Shay’s lonely existence becomes all the more poignant as the number of survivors of that landmark battle dwindles: just one veteran remains of the French special forces that joined U.S., British, Canadian and other allied forces in storming the beaches codenamed Normandy.
France is set to start welcoming vaccinated visitors next week, but not in time for the anniversary of the Normandy landings, which has led to the cancellation of most public commemorations for the second year in a row, with some solemn ceremonies held only for dignitaries and a few guests.
But as France began to lift anti-virus restrictions across the country last month, locals are visiting in greater numbers than they did last year.
Several World War II history buffs from France and neighboring European countries gathered in Normandy.
Driving restored jeeps, wearing old uniforms and dining joyfully on the terraces of newly reopened restaurants, they are recreating the special atmosphere of the commemorations and helping to keep the memory of 6 June 1944 alive.
“In France, people who remember these men keep them in the back of their hearts,” Shea said, “and they remember what they did for them. And I don’t think the French people will ever forget.”
On Saturday morning, people in dozens of World War II vehicles, from motorcycles to jeeps to trucks, gathered in Colville-Montgomery Field and paraded down nearby roads along Sword Beach accompanied by a pipe band. Residents, some waving French and American flags, came to watch.
Sitting in an antique sidecar and dressed in a vintage uniform including an aviator cap and glasses, Audrey Elgas, who travels from the southern city of Marseille every year, said she was unable to come last year because of virus travel restrictions but this year was an exception.
“We definitely wanted to come. It was so nice and necessary!,” she said. “We were worried that we might feel a little lonely, but in the end, we were happy to have even a small gathering.”
Pascal Leclerc, a member of the “Remember Omaha Beach 44” group, shared the same joy.
“It was very nostalgic. It’s just fun, it’s happy and we get to honor all our veterans. That’s the main purpose,” he said.
Henri Jean Renaud, 86, remembers the Normandy landings as if it were yesterday: As a boy, he was hiding out in his family’s home in Sainte-Mère-Église as more than 800 planes carrying American paratroopers flew over the town and German soldiers opened fire on them with machine guns.
Describing that he heard “an incredible noise” followed by silence, he remembers walking across the town’s central square on the morning of June 6, and specifically seeing a dead U.S. paratrooper who had become caught in a large tree that still stands near the town’s church.
“I’ve been here hundreds of times and the first thing I do is look at that tree,” he said. “I always think about that young man, who was told, ‘I’m going to jump in the middle of the night in a strange country.’ He died without ever setting foot on (French) soil. It’s very moving for me.”
During and after the Battle of Normandy, over 12,000 soldiers were temporarily buried at Sainte-Mère-Église before being transferred to their final resting places.
For a few years after the war, locals were allowed to visit the cemetery, and “many people adopted a grave because they saw a name they liked. They were like friends,” Renaud said.
“Some of them were buried in the ground, especially at the beginning when there were no coffins. They became the soil of Normandy,” he added, his voice full of emotion.
On D-Day, more than 150,000 Allied soldiers landed on 7,000 ships code-named Omaha, Utah, Juneau, Sword and Gold beaches. The Battle of Normandy hastened Germany’s defeat, which came less than a year later.
Nevertheless, 4,414 Allied soldiers were killed that day, including 2,501 Americans, and over 5,000 were wounded. Thousands of German soldiers were killed or wounded.
This year, Col. Kevin Sharp attended Friday’s commemoration in Carentan with a delegation of three other U.S. military officers from the Kentucky-based 101st Airborne Division, the same division that took part in the Normandy landings. His delegation received special permission at the last minute to come to France despite virus restrictions.
The U.S. military “really values the service of our soldiers and paratroopers who came before us,” he told The Associated Press. “It was important enough that we sent a small delegation here to let the public know how grateful we are for their sacrifice.”