2023-07-03 16:21:19
Leon Gautier, the last survivor of the 177 Frenchmen who landed in Normandy on June 6, 1944, He died this Monday at the age of 100. as reported on Twitter Le Memorial de Caen.
The D-Day veteran was the last member of the Kieffer commando, a marine rifle battalion to land on the shores of northwestern France. The man died at 7:40 a.m. in a hospital in Caen, as reported to AFP by the mayor of Ouistreham, Romain Bail.
This ex-soldier and father of two children was recognized as a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor in 2021.
The French President,Emanuel Macron, he has described Gautier and his commandos as “heroes of the Liberation.” “We will not forget it,” he said.
He fought “for peace”
Gautier was born in 1922 and joined in July 1940 the forces of General Charles De Gaulle, before fighting in Africa and landing in Normandy.
After his participation in World War II to liberate France from the occupation of Nazi Germany, he never stopped advocating “for peace.”
The command spoke to Reuters in 2019 at his home, several hundred meters from the remains of a German bunker that he and his fellow special forces captain Philippe Kieffer they would have secured before advancing inland.
Then he remembered that he was too young to join the Army when Hitler’s forces occupied France in World War II, so he signed up for the Navy.
“War is a misery”
The last three survivors of the Kieffer commando were honored by French President Emmanuel Macron at Colleville Montgomery, the place where they landed on D-Day, in June 2019, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary.
«The worst we can see is a war, because you kill people from the other side who have never done anything, who have families and children. To achieve what? », Said the Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor at a ceremony on the occasion of his centenary, on October 27, 2022.
Furthermore, he added that the war is “a misery”. “Not so long ago, I would think, ‘Maybe I killed a young man, maybe I left children orphaned, maybe I widowed a woman or made a mother cry.'”
“I didn’t want that. I am not a bad man », she concluded. We are not heroes, we are just doing our duty,” she repeated. Authorities are expected to confirm whether any national tributes will be paid to him in Normandy.
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