VOA慢速英語:美國(guó)退伍軍人回憶諾曼底登陸

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Hundreds of people visit the World War II memorial inWashington, D.C. every day. Many of them go there tohonor family members or friends who died during thewar.

Among the visitors one recent day was 89-year oldCewin Johnson. He was only 19 when he lost his armfighting in France.

“We were fighting (in) the village of Oberhofen, whichwas near, about 20 miles west of Strasbourg and we’d been in that village three times trying to take the town. We’d gotten the Germans all boxed up at the end of thevillage. And Gary heard the tank coming up the street. He sent the artillery in and hit the tank and that’s when Igot hit, too, at the same time.”

Frederick Douglass Williams is now 92. He flew combat planes in in Europeas part of the all-black Tuskegee Airmen group. He says the hardest part ofgoing to war was thinking about the loved ones waiting for his safe return.

“I like what Winston Churchill said, ‘they also served who sit and wait.’ Mothers, sweethearts… Hey, my poor mother, she went crazy. We knew, we expected death all right but not them. ‘Where is my son?’”

US Veterans Reflect on Significance of D-Day 70th Anniversary

Christopher Yung is a research fellow at the Institute for National StrategicStudies at the U.S. National Defense University. He wrote a book on themilitary planning for D-Day.

“It is one of the most important military operations ever conducted, probablythe largest amphibious assault ever undertaken. That it took a great deal ofmilitary thinking, ingenuity, perseverance. It was the first step in which theAllies were able to get back onto the continent. The Germans had erected agigantic fortress, Fortress Europa, to prevent the Allies from returning.”

Brigadier General Bruno Caitucoli is the top defense official at the Frenchembassy in Washington. His father fought in the war.

“What my dad really explained to me so many times is the importance ofbeing ready to defend what is not really given, which is freedom, democracy,et cetera.”

General Caitucoli has a picture in his office to help him remember thesacrifices made by so many during World War II. I’m Anna Matteo.