In a small Normandy town where paratroopers landed in the early hours of D-Day, applause broke the silence to honor Charles Shay. He was the only veteran attending a ceremony in Carentan commemorating the 77th anniversary of the assault that helped bring an end to the Second World War.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, this year's D-Day commemorations are taking place with travel restrictions that have prevented veterans or families of fallen soldiers from the U.S., Britain and other allied countries from making the trip to France. Only a few officials were allowed exceptions.
"We have no visitors coming to France this year for two years now. And I hope it will be over soon," he told The Associated Press in Carentan. Some French and a few other Second World War history enthusiasts from neighbouring European countries gathered in Normandy. Sitting in an old sidecar, Audrey Ergas, dressed in a vintage uniform including an aviator hat and glasses, said she used to come every year from the southern city of Marseille, except for last year due to virus travel restrictions.
"I came here hundreds of times. The first thing I do is look at that tree," he said. "That's always to that young guy that I'm thinking of. He was told: `You're going to jump in the middle of the night in a country you don't know'... He died and his feet never touched soil, and that is very moving to me."
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