‘It was tough’: World War II veterans return to Utah Beach to mark D-Day’s 79th anniversary

By SYLVIE CORBET and JEFFREY SCHAEFFER
Associated Press

ON UTAH BEACH, France (AP) — Dozens of World War II veterans have traveled to Normandy to mark the 79th anniversary of D-Day, the decisive but deadly assault that led to the liberation of France and Western Europe from Nazi control. Using wheelchairs, they formed a parade along the streets of the small town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, France, on Sunday. Cheerful crowds greeted them with applause and cries of “Merci” and “Thank you.” The veterans, most of them American and British, y then headed to Utah Beach. One 99-year-old remembered “it was tough” as more than 150,000 Allied troops landed there on June 6, 1944. On that single day, 4,414 Allied soldiers lost their lives, 2,501 of them Americans.