D-Day's Legacy: Aging Heroes Urge Freedom's Remembrance
On June 6, 1944, nearly 160,000 Allied soldiers stormed the beaches of Normandy in an assault that would be the beginning of the end for Nazi-occupied Western Europe.
Operation Overlord, as the invasion was called, stands not only as a military triumph but also as a testament to courage, sacrifice, and the responsibility of remembrance—remembering those who lost their lives for our freedom.
The human cost of that day and the weeks that followed was staggering.
More than 4,400 Allied soldiers died on D-Day alone.
Germany suffered approximately 320,000 total battle casualties during the campaign, with 30,000 killed, 80,000 wounded, and around 210,000 reported missing: over 70% of the missing were later confirmed as prisoners of war, according to German Military records.
In contrast, the United States recorded around 135,000 casualties, with 29,000 killed and the rest either wounded or missing. The UK suffered around 65,000 battle casualties, with 11,000 killed and 54,000 wounded or missing.
However, these sacrifices laid the groundwork for breaking the Nazi grip on Europe and expediting the collapse of the Third Reich.
Today, on the beaches of Normandy, veterans and their families gathered to honor those who never came home.
Parachute jumps, flyovers, and solemn parades paid tribute to a generation that reshaped the world.
Among those honored was 101-year-old Harold Terens, a radio repairman who served with the Allied forces alongside centenarians Arlester Brown and Wally King, per AP News.
As the years pass, the number of D-Day veterans able to attend these commemorations continues to dwindle. Only 23 veterans were present at this year's ceremony, down from 50 last year. With every passing year, the responsibility to carry forward their stories grows more and more important.
Figures like 104-year-old nurse Betty Huffman-Rosevear and 'Papa Jake' Larson have turned to social media to share their experiences with younger generations of Americans, ensuring that the memory of D-Day lives on beyond the pages of history books and transitions to the screen-addicted era. Larson's YouTube channel, Story Time With Papa Jake, recently hit 16 thousand subscribers as of publication.
D-Day was not just a gritty American victory; it was a shared triumph achieved by a collection of countries: Britain, Canada, Poland, Norway, and countless others, whose soldiers fought side by side to liberate Europe.
With each passing year, that call to keep the memory of D-Day grows more pressing.
Now, more than ever, we must honor D-Day not as a distant story but as a reminder of our responsibility to stand up for freedom – and never forget the price paid for it.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
UPI
17 hours ago
- UPI
On This Day, June 21: 7.7-magnitude earthquake in Iran kills nearly 50,000
1 of 4 | A concrete building is damaged in Walls, Iran, after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck the region June 21, 1990. File Photo by M. Mehrain, Dames and Moore/NOAA On this date in history: In 1788, the U.S. Constitution became effective when it was ratified by a ninth state, New Hampshire. In 1942, German forces, led by Gen. Erwin Rommel, took control of Tobruk, Libya, in an assault on British forces. The North African city was a key port on the Mediterranean Sea. In 1945, Japanese defenders of Okinawa surrendered to U.S. troops. In 1964, Ku Klux Klan members killed three civil rights activists -- James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner -- and hid their bodies in unmarked graves. An informer led the FBI to the three men's graves 44 days later. In 1982, John Hinckley Jr. was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the March 1981 shootings of U.S. President Ronald Reagan and three other people who were also wounded. Hinckley has been in a hospital in Washington, with permission in recent years to spend time outside the institution with his family. UPI File Photo In 1985, international experts in Sao Paulo, Brazil, conclusively identified the bones of a 1979 drowning victim as the remains of Dr. Josef Mengele, a Nazi war criminal, ending a 40-year search for the "angel of death" of the Auschwitz concentration camp. In 1990, an earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale struck northwestern Iran, killing up to 50,000 people. In 1997, Cambodia announced the capture of former Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot. In 2005, a Mississippi jury convicted 80-year-old former Ku Klux Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen of manslaughter in the 1964 killings of three civil rights workers. He was sentenced to 60 years in prison and died in 2018. In 2008, nearly 1,400 people, most of them on a ferry that capsized, were killed in Typhoon Fengshen in the Philippines. In 2011, a RusAir passenger plane flying from Moscow to Petrozavodsk in rain and fog crashed on a highway near an airport and broke apart in flames. Forty-four people died, eight survived. In 2020, the acoustic guitar Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain used during the band's 1993 MTV Unplugged special sold for more than $6 million. It set a new record for highest auction price for a guitar in history. In 2021, Las Vegas Raiders defensive lineman Carl Nassib became the first active NFL player in league history to come out as gay. File Photo by Kyle Rivas/UPI In 2021, Laurel Hubbard made history as the first openly transgender athlete to be selected to compete in an Olympic Games, qualifying for a spot on New Zealand's weightlifting team. In 2023, the Food and Drug Administration granted approval for GOOD Meat, the meat division of Eat Just, and UPSIDE Foods, to sell cultivated poultry in the United States. It was the first approval by the regulatory body for companies to produce meat by growing cells extracted from an animal's body.
San Francisco Chronicle
a day ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Internet and phone outage in much of Gaza disrupts humanitarian operations and deepens isolation
CAIRO (AP) — A breakdown in communications networks in central and southern Gaza has cut many Palestinians off from the outside world for the past week, further straining aid efforts and emergency services amid continuing Israeli bombardment. Israeli strikes damaged a main connection, cutting off communications in large areas of the strip since Tuesday, according to the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The telecom company Paltel said Friday that internet and landline services were restored in some areas in southern Gaza, including Khan Younis, with repairs ongoing in other southern and central areas. Paltel warned in a statement to AP that ongoing attacks on the main network could make future maintenance impossible, especially due to a shortage of essential materials and resources. The Gaza Strip has experienced at least 10 communications partial and full outages since the war began in October 2023, according to Palestinian telecom company Paltel. This week's outage has impacted aid efforts, emergency services, suspended academic classes, and cut off displaced Palestinians from the rest of the territory. Palestinians in Gaza rely heavily on cell service, as unsafe roads and fuel shortages limit movement across the enclave. Humanitarians say those in affected areas will struggle to access information on aid and medical services or call for ambulances. 'Telecoms have been used as a weapon of war against civilians,' said Juliette Touma, communications director at UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugee that is the main service provider in Gaza. The vast majority of UNRWA workers don't have connectivity in the areas affected by the outages. As a result, they and other aid workers have struggled to deliver aid and coordinate with one another, Touma told the AP. 'Sometimes we get a signal when a team member has the courage to go on the rooftop of a building, which is extremely dangerous under strikes, and they send us a message that they're alive. I can't tell you how much of a relief it is, but they're more sporadic and less regular,' said Touma. Some people rely on E-sims, but they are not compatible with all devices and can only work in certain areas. Unreliable mobile service Over 70% of telecommunications networks in Gaza has been partially or completely destroyed as of August 2024 since the war began, according to statistics released by the Palestinian Ministry of Telecommunication and Digital Economy, cited by the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute. However, Paltel said technical teams offered some technical solutions that would restore services. When they hear nearby strikes, Palestinians without connection don't know whether evacuation orders are issued and where should they relocate to, said Shaina Low, the Norwegian Refugee Council's communications adviser. 'This also means that people are isolated. They can't communicate with their family and friends inside of Gaza and understand what the current situation is or get external support from networks outside,' she said. Limited or unreliable mobile service has made it difficult for ambulances and civil defense teams to reach people in need of life-saving assistance, Low added. Fikr Shalltoot, Gaza director for the group Medical Aid for Palestinians, said its doctors working in hospitals and clinics in effected areas can't document or share their work with managers. 'Targeted daily' Meanwhile, with Gaza's university campuses heavily damaged, the internet has become the only way to continue education. But outages have forced educators to cancel classes and exams. 'It is, unfortunately, like a never-ending vicious cycle of suffering because when this issue is resolved in the north, the problem appears in the south,' said Mohammed Shbair, vice president for administrative and financial affairs, at al-Azhar University in Gaza. 'Students cannot reach universities because they are destroyed, and they can't even reach areas where the internet is available in cafes or displacement tents, as they are now being targeted daily and systematically by Israeli strikes,' said Shbair, an associate professor of public law. Online banking, a key alternative amid cash shortages, has also become unavailable. Palestinians who rely on online transfers to pay suppliers can no longer do so under the current conditions, according to Low. The outage complicates humanitarian operations and adds to the 'toxic stress' families face daily, said UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram. 'In a context of incessant bombardments, mass casualty events linked to food distributions, rising malnutrition and dwindling access to clean water, connectivity is a real lifeline for families in Gaza,' she said.
Chicago Tribune
3 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
Monee's St. Paul church granted landmark status by county
A Monee church with roots dating back to the 1850s is being acknowledged as an official Will County historical landmark. The Will County Board Wednesday granted landmark status to the 110-year-old St. Paul's United Church of Christ, 5323 W. Margaret St., making it the 61th Will County site to be named a landmark since the program began in 1992. 'This is very exciting for the village of Monee,' said County Board member Judy Ogalla, who represents the area. While the church was dedicated during services conducted in both English and German on June 13, 1915, the congregation can trace its history decades earlier when German immigrants settled in eastern Will County. In 1858, 35 residents founded St. Paul's congregation, according to the church's history. Despite having little money, they built the original church structure in 1860 for about $1,045 and used adjacent land that was donated by one of the first church officers and village founders for a cemetery. The historic designation is extra special to Christina Holston, a member of the Will County Historic Preservation Commission, whose relatives were among the church's founders in the 1850s. 'St. Paul's has been the cornerstone of village life for many years,' Holston said. 'Community life was centered around St. Paul's.' The ground for a new church was broken in 1914. Members of the congregation placed important documents and the history of the church in a copper box embedded in the cornerstone, though only a few of the charter members who organized the congregation in 1858 were living and present at the ceremony, historical documents said. 'After the cornerstone ceremony the ladies of the church spread long tables in the basement and loaded them with fried chicken, boiled ham, potato salad, pickles, pies and all the trimming, serving over 4,000 until long into the evening,' the church's history said. Throughout the years, the church has been home to several organizations and events, Holston said. Both the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts met in the basement as did a quilting society and a knitting club that created handmade booties and blankets for new babies. The church has been a host for veterans breakfasts, pork chop dinners and Oktoberfest celebrations, Holston said. St. Paul's Cemetery, which is the resting place for about 100 veterans, including 17 Civil War veterans, is part of Wreaths Across America day, Holston said. St. Paul's Cemetery was named an official Will County historic landmark in 2020, and numerous of Holston's relatives, dating back to her great, great, great-grandfather, are buried there. 'It's been a landmark in the community for its entire life,' Holston said. 'Now it's officially being recognized.' Landmarking protects local heritage, boosts tourism, increases property values and helps the environment by reusing what already exists, according to the Will County Land Use Department. Property owners may qualify for tax credits and state and federal grants. There are four other Will County landmarks located within Monee Township, including the Monee Creamery, the Riegel Farmstead, the St. Paul's Cemetery, and the Henery Furst House. Nominating the site recognizes its importance to local history and its value to the Monee community, county documents said. Will County staff noted the church's exterior and interior are in good physical condition, and it is an example of gothic revival style, which was a popular architectural style for the times. 'It has a lot of meaning to the village,' said Ogalla, of Monee. 'The families have a deep appreciation and love for this building. It's just a focal point of this community that everyone can wrap their arms around.' She said the building and its congregation are welcoming. Holston said they hope to have a celebration for the historical landmark status later this summer or in fall.
