France marks 78th anniversary of D-Day, veterans return to pay homage

France marks the 78th anniversary of D-Day on Monday with the World War II veterans making a trip to the northern regions of Normandy to celebrate the occasion. On June 6, 1944, Omaha Beach was the landing site for Allied forces who stormed the sand into Europe to defeat Nazi forces who had taken hold in many towns and villages in the northern region. Some 160,000 troops in 7,000 boats landed there, as well as on the nearby beaches of Utah, Juno, Sword, and Gold. Over 1,000 people are expected to gather on Monday for a ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery in the town of Colleville-sur-Mer which overlooks Omaha Beach, according to French news outlet France24. The U.S. Aircraft will fly overhead to honor those who served. The celebrations are also the first in two years due to lockdowns and confinement in the COVID-19 pandemic that kept both veterans and visitors away. A 97-year-old paratrooper, Ray Wallace, made the trip and will take part in Monday's commemoration. Wallace served in the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division. 'I guess you can say I'm proud of what I did but I didn't do that much,' he said to France24. 'I remember the good friends that I lost there so it's a little emotional.' Over the weekend, veterans and their families as well as those who made the trip to honor the fallen gathered at the Pegasus Bridge in Ranville, France for a commemorative service, one of the first sites liberated by the Allies from the Nazis. Known officially as the Normandy Invasion, it left 4,414 troops killed on that day, including 2,501 Americans, and 5,000 wounded. German troops were ready for the invasion, however, with gunfire placed at strategic high points around the nearly 10-kilometer-long (6-mile) beach as the forces landed. The ocean waters as well as the beach were also heavily mined by the Germans. 'I'm enormously proud to have been a minute part of Operation Overlord,' Mary Scott, 95, told French news outlet Radio France International as she paid tribute at the beach. Scott worked in the operations center in the English port city of Portsmouth on the other side of the Channel. Seventeen at the time, she was charged with passing on radio messages as the invasion took place over each of the beaches.