LONDON Although Ken Hay’s involvement in the Normandy invasion was brief, he is determined to immortalize the memories of those who battled and lost their lives to break the Nazis’ hold on Europe.
A few weeks after the D-Day landings in northern France, the veteran of the British Army was taken prisoner when German troops surrounded his patrol during the two-month battle for crucial high ground, also known as Hill 112, outside the city of Caen. That night, nine men from his squad lost their lives. Hay was held prisoner of war for the following ten months.
At the age of 98, Hay travels to schools whenever he can to share his experience in hopes that, unlike the Greek and Roman conflicts he was taught about as a boy, the fight to free France and defeat Nazi Germany won’t be forgotten.
“We veterans, though we are a dwindling group, naturally, are a concrete representation of what they read in the books, hear from their parents, and recall their grandparents saying,” Hay recently stated.
He stated that his goal is to spread the idea that “there must be a way, other than war, to resolve difficulties,” rather than to glorify combat.
The veterans who are gathered in Normandy this week to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day repeatedly reiterate this point. They feel especially obligated to share their stories because even the youngest of those men and women are gradually becoming less in number as they approach their 100th birthday.
They are aware that today will probably be the final significant occasion to honor the sacrifices made by those who battled and lost their lives to free France.
International leaders have acknowledged the importance of the occasion. French President Emmanuel Macron will be hosting the celebrations in Normandy, and the leaders of the three nations that provided the majority of the D-Day forces—U.S. President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau—will be traveling there. At an occasion at the British Normandy Memorial, King Charles III, whose mother and father served in the armed forces during World War II, will be there.
In order to launch the eagerly anticipated second front in the battle against Nazi Germany, about 160,000 Allied soldiers parachuted behind enemy lines or landed on the beaches of Normandy in the early hours of June 6, 1944, or D-Day as it was also known. In order to gain a foothold in Northern Europe, the Allied forces breached the Nazis’ heavily defended “Atlantic Wall,” resulting in at least 4,414 troops being killed and an additional 5,900 being classified as missing or injured.
More than 2 million soldiers from 12 Allied countries had crossed the English Channel by the end of August, beginning the march to Berlin that resulted in Germany’s surrender on May 8, 1945.
The precise number of men and women who witnessed the events directly is unknown.
According to estimates from the U.S. Veterans Administration, 131 Americans are losing their lives every day and less than 1% of the 16.4 million Americans who fought in the armed forces during World War II were still alive at the end of last year.
According to actuarial figures, a generation won’t exist very soon, according to Rob Citino, a senior historian at The National WWII Museum in New Orleans. “And I believe that this 80th anniversary is the final year that we will be able to truly celebrate with the knowledge and presence of the veteran generation that actually fought the war.”
What’s being lost are the men and women who battled their way throughout Europe to overthrow the Nazis after witnessing the ascent to power of Adolf Hitler in Germany, the fall of France, and the persecution of Jews that is now known as the Holocaust.
The death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, who served as a military mechanic and truck driver during the latter months of the war, served as a poignant reminder of the generation that came of age in the United Kingdom after World War II.
According to Ian Johnson, a University of Notre Dame professor of military, diplomacy, and technology, “everyone knew the Allies would invade Europe, they just didn’t know when or where.” As a result, D-Day was the largest operation of the war and a highly dramatic occasion.
However, 80 years later, Hollywood films like “Saving Private Ryan” continue to influence people’s perceptions of D-Day rather than the accounts of the veterans who really participated in the fighting.
Johnson remarked, “You know, the majority of my students weren’t even born when that movie was made.” Nearly everyone has witnessed it. I believe that this is what people envision when they think of the Second World War.”
D-Day’s triumph was not assured.
In order to deceive the Germans about the invasion’s location, Allied commanders used deceit, including the use of a fake army. They also labored to choose a day when the sun, moon, and tides would be in their favor.
They were aware that a loss would extend the conflict and bring more suffering and fatalities to all of Europe.
“Hitler’s murderous racial policies have resulted in hundreds of thousands of military deaths, and we can only speculate as to how many more civilian casualties there may be,” Citino stated. “So you want to put an end to this war as soon as possible, and a successful landing in Western Europe is the way to do that.”
In spite of D-Day’s victory, Jews perished in Nazi extermination camps.
After listening to BBC reports of the D-Day landings, Anne Frank—who had been hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam for more than two years—wrote in her well-known diary that the news had given her “fresh courage.” She passed away in Bergen-Belsen in February 1945 from typhus, and her family was captured in August 1944.
Hay gave a first-hand description of the atrocities committed by the Nazis in an east London school last month.
Following their capture, he and four other platoon members were transported by train to Poland where they were employed in a coal mine. The prisoners were marched back across the continent without much food or weather protection as Russian forces drew in from the east in January 1945. On April 22, U.S. tank troops released them.
With the exception of his late wife Doris, Hay stated that the two American troops who freed him were the most significant individuals in his life. They shared 62 years of marriage.
“Granddad Ken,” as the children called him, spoke to them about pain, hunger, and the cold. However, he withheld some information out of fear of telling the “kiddies” all the atrocities he had seen.
But when 11-year-old Joey Howlett asked him how to end war, he was prepared.
“Love,” Hay exclaimed.
“If you genuinely adore who you are, who your friends and family are, who you met yesterday, who you meet today, and who you will meet tomorrow, then sure. There wouldn’t be any conflicts if we could all achieve it.