Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Well with me here on set in the studio is former French military general Dominique Trincon
00:05 Who is also headed France's military mission to the UN?
00:08 Thanks very much for being with us on the program today.
00:10 Thank you for inviting.
00:11 As a military man yourself, I mean the sheer scale of what was achieved on D-Day is almost impossible to imagine, isn't it?
00:20 Yes, exactly. I mean you've got two sides. You've got the soldiers side, the people who were on board the ships and
00:27 on this morning were just for the first time seeing the French coast and have to fight and to try to be
00:34 safe at the end of the day. And on the leaders side
00:38 the decision
00:41 was very difficult to take the decision as you know the world the
00:45 weather was very bad at that time and they have just a window of a few hours to launch the operation.
00:53 They decided to launch it on the 6th of June because it was already postponed and
00:59 everybody was on ship.
01:01 So it was a very difficult decision to take and to know that a lot of the soldiers will be killed in the few
01:08 first hours. And as James was talking about there the
01:11 emotional events of what's happening today, I mean, why do you think it's so important to remember?
01:17 I think as it was said very important to see that it's
01:21 probably the last time that you've got veterans
01:23 present and
01:26 these people who were there on the first day on D-Day and
01:30 since then have
01:33 several times come back to France, but this time probably
01:37 because they are very old they know that it's the last time they will be there and to think about their
01:44 comrade who were killed at that time.
01:47 Well do stay with us, you're going to be with us for the next couple of hours as we follow that ceremony which begins in
01:51 around 10 to 15 minutes time here on France 24.