THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
80 years ago today, 156,000 Allied service members landed on the beaches of Normandy, France. The D-Day invasion was a major turning point in the war, and the start of operations that would liberate Western Europe and defeat Nazi Germany, freeing numerous prisoners like Les Schrenk, of Long Prairie, Minnesota, who was shot down over Denmark during World War II and taken prisoner.
Most of the Allied troops who landed on the beaches were from the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, but troops from Australia, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland and others also participated in D-Day and the Battle of Normandy. Their fight helped forge a trans-Atlantic bond that continues to ensure the freedom and security of millions.
Now 100 years old, Schrenk, a former U.S. Army Air Corps gunner, is one of dozens of U.S. World War II veterans who have returned to Europe to commemorate D-Day's 80th anniversary.
The veterans range in age from their late 90s to over 100. They include 101-year-old Jake Larson, who charged onto a Normandy beach under heavy machine gunfire and survived.
Frank Perry, 98, of Advance, North Carolina, told American Airlines he is honored to travel with 69 other World War II veterans from Dallas to Paris on a flight chartered by the airline. "I'm really looking forward to walking on that hallowed ground," said Perry, who served as a U.S. Army Air Corps aerial gunner in central Europe in 1945. "It's such a special place, when you consider what they faced."
American and Delta Airlines flew dozens of veterans to France. Groups including the California-based Best Defense Foundation and the Wisconsin-based nonprofit Old Glory Honor Flight also supported veterans returning to Europe.
