The disappearing D-Day survivors

Bob CollinsBob Collins Jun 6, 2013
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Sixty-nine years ago today, 157,000 men participated in the landing on Normandy, known as D-Day. More than 6,000 died in the invasion.

At the Memorial Day Concert in 2007, actor Charles Durning told his story of being one of the first soldiers on Omaha Beach. The scene he described was anything but glorious. It was an astounding moment.

Durning died last Christmas Eve. There aren’t many survivors of D-Day left.

A few gathered in France today. Very few.

BAYEUX, FRANCE - JUNE 06: Normandy Veterans, pose for a group photograph at a remembrance and wreath laying ceremony to commemorate the start of the D-Day landings at Bayeux War Cemetery on June 6, 2013 in Bayeux, France. Across Normandy several hundred of the surviving veterans of the Normandy campaign are gathering to commemorate the 69th anniversary of the D-Day landings which eventually led to the Allied liberation of France in 1944. Next year, which will mark the 70th anniversary of the landings, is widely expected to be the last time that the veterans will gather in any great number. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)