D-Day: Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, whose father fought in WW2, attend moving ‘last goodbye’ ceremony to mark 80th anniversary of Normandy landings as actor praises ‘young men doing the right thing’

Movie icons Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks joined world leaders in Normandy on Thursday morning as part of the 80th D-Day anniversary commemoration, which is believed to be the last in which veterans will attend.

The pair, known for their collaboration in the Oscar-winning 1998 epic Saving Private Ryan, which portrayed the events of the fateful day in 1945 when the tide of World War II turned in favor of the Allies, joined dozens of world leaders at the events .

After Saving Private Ryan, Spielberg and Hanks teamed up again for the drama series Band of Brothers, which followed American soldiers in northern France in the aftermath of the storming of the beaches.

Hanks and Spielberg were seen talking at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, which overlooks Omaha Beach.

Nearly 160,000 Allied troops landed in Normandy on June 6, 1944. Of these, 73,000 were from the United States and 83,000 from Great Britain and Canada. Military forces from several other countries were also involved, including French troops fighting with General Charles de Gaulle.

The Allies faced approximately 50,000 German troops.

More than two million Allied soldiers, sailors, pilots, medics and other people from a dozen countries were involved in the overall Operation Overlord, the battle to wrest western France from Nazi control that began on D-Day.

Spielberg’s father, Arnold, was drafted into the U.S. Army in January 1942, a month after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Thanks to his skills with radio equipment, Arnold was assigned to the Signal Corps.

He eventually rose to the rank of communications chief in the 409th Bomb Squadron stationed in India. It is estimated that the Spielberg family lost as many as twenty relatives in Nazi concentration camps. Arnold passed away in 2020.

This year, Hanks and Spielberg teamed up again to produce the Apple TV+ series Masters of the Air.

Among those attending today’s ceremony is US President Joe Biden, who is expected to compare Europe’s struggle to defeat the Nazis with the current struggle in Ukraine, where Russian President Vladimir Putin has stepped up his attacks .

“Today, in 2024, 80 years later, we see dictators once again trying to challenge order and march across Europe,” said National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.

He added that Biden “will draw a through line from World War II, through the Cold War and the rise of the greatest military alliance the world has ever known, the NATO alliance, to today, where we are once again confronted with war in Europe. where NATO has united to defend freedom and sovereignty in Europe.’

Biden will also meet American veterans who fought during D-Day. French President Emmanuel Macron will join him at the event.

Earlier today, Biden and first lady Jill Biden had an emotional meeting with D-Day veterans ahead of the ceremonies.

In a light-hearted moment during today’s somber event, veteran Robert Gibson told the 81-year-old president, “Don’t grow old.”

Biden presented each of the men with a special challenger coin to mark the occasion.

Biden was one year old when the invasion took place. It is thought he will be the last American president to be alive when D-Day occurred at a major D-Day anniversary event. His predecessor, Donald Trump, was born two years after D-Day.

The president chatted with each veteran and when he heard it was someone’s birthday, he gathered everyone in the pavilion to sing Happy Birthday to him.

The 172.5 hectare cemetery was established on June 8, 1944 by the American First Army as the first American cemetery on European soil in World War II.

Each grave site was decorated with a French and American flag. Many buried there died on D-Day. The names of 1,557 soldiers are also inscribed on the Walls of the Missing.

The graves contain 307 unknown personnel, three Medal of Honor recipients and four women. Forty-five sets of brothers are commemorated or buried in the cemetery. Father and son are also buried next to each other.