Flypast over Normandy to mark DDay anniversary

La Patrouille de France performed a flypast over the Normandy beaches on Saturday to mark the 76th anniversary of D-Day.

Compared to last year, when many tens of thousands came to the northern French beaches of Normandy to cheer the dwindling number of veterans and celebrate three-quarters of a century of liberation from Nazi oppression, the coronavirus lockdown turned this year's remembrance into one of the eeriest ever.

Normally, veterans would meet other survivors of the 1944 battle and celebrate with locals and dignitaries alike.

This year, US veterans could not fly in because of the pandemic.

Still the French would not let the day slip by unnoticed, such is their attachment to some 160,000 soldiers from the United States, Britain, Canada and other countries who spilled their blood to free foreign beaches and fight on to finally defeat Nazism almost one year later.

The pandemic has wreaked havoc across the world, infecting 6.6 million people, killing over 391,000 and devastating economies. It poses a particular threat to the elderly - like the surviving D-Day veterans who are in their late nineties or older.

It has also affected the younger generations who turn out every year to mark the occasion. Most have been barred from travelling to the windswept coasts of Normandy.

(Representative Image)