France's last surviving D-Day commando joins beach landing anniversary
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[June 06, 2023]
COLLEVILLE-MONTGOMERY, France (Reuters) - Leon Gautier, the last
surviving member of the French commandos who stormed the Normandy
beaches defended by Hitler's troops in 1944, on Tuesday joined President
Emmanuel Macron at a seafront ceremony marking the 79th anniversary of
the D-Day landings.
Gautier, 100, presented a student marine commando with his green beret
at a passing out parade at Colleville-Montgomery, near where a
17-year-old Gautier had landed on Sword Beach in a hail of enemy fire. |
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French President Emmanuel Macron and French
WWII veteran of the Commando Kieffer Leon Gautier attend a ceremony in
tribute to the 177 French members of the "Commando Kieffer" Fusiliers
Marins commando unit who took part in the Normandy landings, as part of
the 79th anniversary of the World War II "D-Day" Normandy landings, in
Colleville-Montgomery, France June 6, 2023. Ludovic Marin/Pool via
REUTERS |
Gautier was one of 177 French green berets under the command of
Captain Philippe Kieffer who took part in the Normandy landings.
More than 150,000 allied troops invaded France to drive out Nazi
Germany forces.
At Tuesday's ceremony, the young marine knelt down on one knee
to allow Gautier, sat in a wheelchair to Macron's side, to
straighten his beret.
In 2019, Gautier recounted on the occasion of the 75th D-Day
anniversary how French troops had been the first to wade
chest-deep onto Sword Beach.
"Your honour," Gautier recalled British Colonel Robert Dawson
telling the French green berets. "We went in only a few seconds
ahead. It was a symbolic gesture."
"By the end of the day I didn’t have many bullets left."
(Reporting by Noemie Olive; Writing by Richard Lough, editing by
Ed Osmond)
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