D-Day, 62 years later

IN THE NEWS
Perhaps Memorial Day should be moved to June 6th. Sadly, most of the living D-Day veterans are now dead, and the battle for Normandy claimed approximately 4,500 British, Canadian, and American lives on the first day alone. There's plenty to memorialize: while Gettysburg was vitally important for American history, D-Day was a critical moment in world history.

The beaches themselves--Gold, Juno, Sword, Utah, and Omaha--draw thousands of tourists each year, each interested in touching the ineffable gravity of history that still lingers there. People are also interested in whatever communion they can achieve with the individual soldiers, the men who parachuted into a dark landscape, framed by flak and tracer fire reaching for them; the gliders that fell silently from the skies onto the doorstep of the surprised German defenders at Pegasus Bridge; and, of course, the troops that marched through the surf, machinegun and 88mm artillery fire criss-crossing the naked beaches towards which they were headed.

Whatever you think of the last few years of American history, D-Day continues to define what the United States is capable of achieving. I should amend that last statement: the United States could only have achieved the victory at Normandy without the help of the other allied armies (British, Canadian, Free French, and Polish) who fought alongside American GIs. It would also not have been possible, had not the United States treated these other nations, no matter how big or small their contributions, no matter how easy or difficult the personalities of their leaders, as colleagues and, yes, equals. D-Day was international in execution as well as significance.

Comments

[Frédéric Busschaert]

I seek information on American soldier: Cyril Kelleher Company D 501st PIR 101st Airborne Cyril Kelleher was born the 19/12/1919 in Forest City, Pennsylvania and is deceased the 17/6/1944 with Ste-Mother-Church can you inform me about the circumstances of its death? In which attack? When it was enlisted

thanks