More than six decades after the invasion that turned the tide of World War II, Normandy still beckons to the American soldiers who fought on its beaches, scaled its cliffs and battled to free its towns. Many D-Day veterans from Maryland feel that pull and have traveled repeatedly to France to pay homage to fallen comrades and to remember the valor that distinguished an era.
"It gets harder all the time, but I feel that I have to go," said Samuel R. Krauss, 92, a veteran of the Army's 29th Division, which took part in the invasion that began on June 6, 1944.
Krauss is in France today to mark D-Day's 65th anniversary. He traveled with several fellow veterans, including William Doyle, a fellow lifetime Baltimore County resident who first returned to Normandy in 1988 and has lost count of the number of times he has been back.
"It always brings back memories, and I like being with old friends," said Doyle. "But I am 94, and sure this will be my last trip."
The Maryland contingent will join a determined but dwindling band of veterans who will watch President Barack Obama participate today in the international commemoration. The group probably will meet with Gov. Martin O'Malley, who accompanied a dozen veterans on the trip to France.
Krauss and Doyle are neighbors at the Charlestown retirement community in Catonsville, but a lifetime ago were members of the only National Guard unit that landed on the 50-mile stretch of coastline during the risky assault. They were in separate regiments in the second wave to hit Omaha Beach on June 7, 1944.
"What saved us was the ships and the Air Force and the fire set in the brush on the beach," Krauss said. "There was a smoke screen. We got wet, but I will take that any time to being shot."
He was shot 10 days later on his 19th birthday and left with a badly wounded shoulder.
What Doyle remembers of the landing was "so many dead and so many wrecked vehicles all over the beach."
All during the battle, Shelton Bosley, another Charlestown resident and a retired insurance investigator, manned a turret gun on a Navy PT boat in the English Channel.
"So much happened at the same time," he said. "I was in the turret with two 50-caliber guns. We really were sitting ducks.
"I had to keep looking all over the place, reporting to the skipper, when I saw any enemy planes or surface craft," he said. "I saw our planes bringing in paratroopers and gliders."
