D-Day anniversary remembered in Normandy Institute video

Ceremonies in France to honor surviving veterans and pay homage to the fallen of the June 6, 1944, Normandy invasion, were largely curtailed this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Normandy Institute, which offers education and leadership training, has produced a video featuring 33 D-Day veterans, military leaders and others to commemorate the historic operation that began the end of World War II in Europe.

The video, recorded through digital video platforms and by smartphones, can be viewed here.

In addition to veterans of the invasion, former American Legion 100th Anniversary Honorary Committee members Susan Eisenhower and Tom Brokaw appear. Frequent contributor to The American Legion Magazine retired Col. Keith Nightingale, a noted war historian, also provides perspective on the significance of history’s largest amphibious invasion.

Maxine Giannini of New Jersey also reads her late husband’s writing about his experience as a 29th Division MP. Ugo Giannini, who barely made it across Omaha Beach, was an artist who produced the only known firsthand sketches of the invasion as it happened, is featured in the June and July issues of The American Legion Magazine. The two-part series describes his experience fighting across Europe in 1944 and 1945 and the struggles he faced after coming home.