A Salute to Heroes by Simon Smith

A veteran remembers those who were cut down in the vicious battle to capture ‘Bloody Omaha’, the beach whose blood-stained sands would claim the lives of so many young American soldiers. Paying a particularly heavy price were the first to land, the men of the U.S. 29th Infantry Division – the ‘Blue and Gray’ – whose spirits rise alongside Rangers who assaulted nearby Pointe du Hoc to acknowledge the salute.

On the morning of 6 June 1944, fierce battles erupted across five beaches in Normandy as the first Allied units stormed ashore in the largest amphibious assault in history – D- DAY.

Subjected to a blizzard of deadly fire, those who survived the assault would never forget their perilous dash across the beach nor, as they gasped for breath in an air that hung heavy with cordite, the wretched scenes around them. Today those beaches are peaceful, tranquil settings where wheeling gulls and curious tourists stalk dunes still haunted by visions of the past, places to which an ever-diminishing band of Normandy veterans continue to be drawn. With fading recollections burnt into aging memories none forget their fallen comrades who ‘shall grow not old as they that are left grow old’.