FRANCE: GERMAN WAR VETERANS PAY RESPECTS AT LA CAMBE WAR CEMETARY TO SOLDIERS WHO DIED FIGHTING IN NORMANDY IN JUNE 1944

Record ID: 208393

  • Title: FRANCE: GERMAN WAR VETERANS PAY RESPECTS AT LA CAMBE WAR CEMETARY TO SOLDIERS WHO DIED FIGHTING IN NORMANDY IN JUNE 1944
  • Date: 4th June 2004
  • Summary: (W7) LA CAMBE, FRANCE (JUNE 4, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. SLV OF EXTERIOR GERMAN MILITARY CEMETERY 0.05 2. CLOSE OF SIGN AT ENTRANCE READING GERMAN MILITARY CEMETARY 0.10 3. SLV GERMAN SOLDIERS DIGGING GRAVE 0.15 4. CLOSE OF TOMBSTONES READING A GERMAN SOLDIER 0.19 5. SLV TOMBSTONES 0.24 6. SLV GERMAN SOLDIERS DIGGING GRAVE 0.32 7. SMV GERMAN VISITORS WATCHING 0.38 8. VARIOUS OF GERMAN SOLDIERS DIGGING GRAVE 0.44 9. SLV GERMAN VETERANS AND OTHER GERMAN VISITORS LISTENING TO GUIDE EXPLAINING TO THEM THAT A GERMAN SOLDIER WHO MUST HAVE BEEN 20 AT THE TIME OF HIS DEATH IN 1944 AND WHOSE BODY WAS FOUND ONLY DAYS AGO, WILL BE BURIED AT THE CEMETERY, NEXT TO HIS COMRADES, ON SUNDAY 1.10 10. SLV GERMAN SOLDIERS DIGGING GRAVE 1.15 11. VARIOUS OF GERMAN VETERANS AND RELATIVES PRAYING 1.27 12. VARIOUS OF GERMAN VETERANS AND RELATIVES SINGING AROUND GRAVE 1.44 13. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) VETERAN HERBERT FISCHBACH, SAYING "I remember those days I spent 60 years ago and it makes me really sad that we were forced to fight people we had never met who, as I found out later, were our friends. This is why I support all juvenile organisations to get together, talk to each other and have a nice time. And that is better than all the rules from the governments and what not." 2.25 14. SMV VETERAN OTTO SCHMIDT TALKING TO JOURNALISTS 2.30 15. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (German) OTTO SCHMIDT EXPLAINING THAT HE IS VERY HAPPY TO BE BACK IN NORMANDY AND TO BE ABLE TO ATTEND SUNDAY CELEBRATIONS, SAYING "As an old soldier it is very interesting to me and especially after we received the invitation to go to the commemoration, it is very nice to attend on the June 6, also after we received the invitation. Yes and then I replied that of course I want to be there." 2.53 16. WIDE OF GROUP AT WAR MEMORIAL 2.57 17. CLOSE OF WREATH 3.01 18. WIDE OF WAR MEMORIAL 3.06 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 19th June 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LA CAMBE, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Reuters ID: LVA8RFC5VQVRUEJP9O8HIYZLEQCG
  • Story Text: German veterans attended a moving ceremony in the
    small village of La Cambe.



    The WWII veterans and dozens of relatives gathered
    on Friday (June 4, 2004) at the largest cemetery for German
    soldiers killed in the Allied invasion of Normandy in June
    1944 for a moving ceremony of peace and reconciliation.

    At the resting place of some 21,300 German soldiers in
    La Cambe, some veterans in their 80's accompanied by family
    members and relatives of the dead, prayed and sang as they
    stood amidst the tombs of their fellow citizens. Just a few
    meters away from them, German soldiers could be seen
    digging a fresh grave for yet another soldier killed in
    1944 whose remains were found by a street worker only days
    ago. The body will be buried at the La Cambe cemetery on
    Sunday June 6, the day of the D-Day 60's anniversary.

    "I remember those days I spent 60 years ago and it
    makes me really sad that we were forced to fight people we
    had never met who, as I found out later, were our friends.

    This is why I support all juvenile organisations to get
    together, talk to each other and have a nice time. And that
    is better than all the rules from the governments and what
    not," veteran Herbert Fischbach told Reuters Television
    after the ceremony.

    La Cambe is the largest German cemetery in the region.

    The remains of 296 unknown men lay under a large tumulus at
    the centre of the massive graveyard. Brown stones marking
    the graves of soldiers lie flat on the ground. The
    tree-lined cemetery is dotted with Maltese crosses
    clustered in rows of five.

    Dozens of other commemorations are being held in
    Normandy over the anniversary weekend, at 19 different
    sites. War veterans will be guests of honour at many of
    them. The 60th anniversary is of special importance because
    it is likely to be the last major anniversary in which a
    significant number of veterans will be present.

    The American landing in Normandy was the biggest and
    most complex military operation in history.

    The anniversary celebrations on Sunday will bring
    together war time victors United States and Britain and
    their former enemy Germany, smaller allied nations whose
    soldiers were there on D-Day, and the big one whose men
    were not : Russia. They won't all look back on the longest
    day as mainly a triumph of Allied military might: the
    Germans now talk about it as the dawn of their liberation
    from Nazism, Russians tend to rank D-Day below their 1943
    victory at Stalingrad.

    But with time moving on and veterans passing away, the
    daring invasion is settling back into the annals of
    historical events whose meaning can be moulded in the light
    of subsequent events.


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