PHOTO Commemoration of D-Day: American war veterans welcomed as heroes at Paris airport

A group of 66 World War II veterans will participate in a ceremony commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day on the coast of Normandy, and they were given a "hero's welcome" at the Paris airport, French online television BFMTV reported today.

Some of the veterans came on the same flight from Dallas over the weekend, and many of them are over 100 years old.

Some served in different parts of Europe where Allied forces were fighting Nazi soldiers, while others were in the Pacific or in the US, before the Normandy landings.

Among them is Bill Wall, who is 101 years old and was an aerial gunner in charge of bombing bridges and other targets in Germany and France.

"I was on the front line from the beginning. I lost very good friends, all these people who are on crosses and in unmarked graves are true heroes. This gives me the opportunity to pay them the respect they deserve," he said at Paris Charles- de-Gol.

Reynolds Tomer (107) also came in a wheelchair and was visibly touched by the welcome at the airport.

Former French ambassador to the US Philippe Etienne was present at the airport to welcome them.

"You risked your lives to free our country from oppression. You are living witnesses of an era that shaped our world. You remain the guardians of our freedom. You are a true role model for our young people," he told the veterans.

Jake Larson, who is 101 years old, came to the celebration and he recently told the media about his arrival at Omaha Beach in Normandy.

Among the veterans is Charles Norman Shay, an American of Indian origin, who turns 100 in June. He was a military medic and treated the wounded on the beaches during D-Day. He decided in 2017 to move to Normandy after regularly attending the D-Day ceremony.

The D-Day ceremony has already begun on the shores of Normandy. There were several fireworks on the beaches, and yesterday 350 paratroopers jumped near the monastery of Saint Michel, the patron saint of paratroopers.

The main ceremony is on June 6, and will be led by French President Emmanuel Macron. Foreign leaders were invited, from the USA, Great Britain, Canada and Germany.

On that day, Thursday, June 6, it will be exactly 80 years since the start of the operation known as D-Day, one of the key battles for the victory over Nazi Germany.

The Normandy landings, codenamed "Operation Overlord", was the largest naval invasion in the history of warfare. Allied landing forces consisted of 73.000 American, more than 60.000 British and over 20.000 Canadian soldiers, supported by French commandos.

The landings along the 80-kilometer coast began with a night parachute landing of 23.000 men, a large-scale artillery attack from the air and sea, which was followed on June 6, 1944 by a successful amphibious landing on the strategically important Pegasus Bridge, near Caen, a city in northwestern France.