ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — When the need was the greatest, it was the Greatest Generation that stepped up to help defeat the Germans in World War II. Eight decades later, we honor their legacy by remembering their sacrifice. NEWS10 invited local veterans and their families to watch a presentation of “D-Day: The Greatest Victory.”
The hour-long special was shot on location in Normandy and documents the bravery on the beach and the battle that ensued on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
The invasion by the allied forces helped liberate France under Nazi occupation. It was a military operation on an unprecedented scale. Arthur Rumph, a local Vietnam veteran in the audience, states, “A lot of people don’t realize what it took to formulate an invasion like that.”
The special advanced screening brought veterans of another war together in one room at Hanger 743 in Albany to watch.
“Brings back a lot of things I’d rather not have to think about again,” Bunk Bingham reflected after watching the special.
A veteran of a Vietnam war, Bingham looked back on his own military service and a special trip to Normandy 10 years ago. “We walked the beaches, walked Utah Beach, Omaha Beach,” said Bingham. “My late father-in-law was on one of the ships on the English Channel.”
The stories featured remind us all of the realities of war.
“The cemetery is the part that really got me the most. Seeing those grave markers and the ones that hurt the most are the ones that said ‘Here lies a U.S. Soldier known only to God.’ That takes your breath away.”
It’s a scene Cathy Picciocca will take in later this summer on her trip to Normandy. “My great-nephew and I are going to Normandy in July to visit my, to visit, wow,” an emotional Picciocca explained, her uncle, who took part in the epic invasion died in Normandy in 1944. In a letter home he wrote weeks before his death to his family in New York, “Don’t worry about me, because I am getting used to it.”
“I’m reading and watching and learning about it,” Picciocca said.
The stories are becoming even more important to preserve, as fewer and fewer WWII veterans remain with us. The special presentation will air at 7 p.m. on Thursday June 6 on Fox23.