COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ceremonies to commemorate Friday’s 70th anniversary of D-Day are drawing thousands of visitors, including world leaders and dignitaries, to the cemeteries, beaches and stone-walled villages of Normandy.
EXTRA: Veterans recall D-Day
RELATED: World leaders mark D-Day anniversary
LISTEN: Hear Gen. Eisenhower’s message to the troops before D-Day | LOOK BACK: D-Day remembered | WWII propaganda posters | EXTRA: At D-Day event, Obama to connect WWII, 9/11 veterans
Ohio has its own events planned to commemorate the Normandy Invasion during World War II.
Those include two days of lectures and discussions sponsored by the Ohio State University Department of History, a discussion at the Ohio Historical Center and a 3-D film screened at the Air Force Museum Theatre.
On June 6, 1944, more than 156,000 American, British, Canadian and French amphibious troops and 13,000 paratroopers and glider-borne troops crossed the English Channel to assault a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline. The largest seaborne invasion in history, the operation began the invasion of German-occupied western Europe and contributed to an Allied victory in the war over Nazi Germany.
On Thursday, June 5, OSU will host a series of lectures by leading military historians, including History Professor Emeritus Williamson Murray; History Professor and Chair Peter Hahn; History Associate Professor and General Raymond E. Mason, Jr. Chair in Military History, Peter Mansoor; and history alumnus Russell Hart.
On Friday, June 6, from 3:30 – 5:00 p.m., a veterans panel discussion will take place at the Ohio Union’s Performance Hall. The panel, chaired by former Columbus mayor and Ohio State football player Greg Lashutka will include Jim Baize, Donald Dunn, Wendell Ellenwood and John Williams, veterans of both the European and Pacific theaters, who will share their World War II experiences. The public will be able to meet the veteran speakers at the reception which follows.
Online registration is available.
Saturday at 2:00 p.m., Ohio Historical Society manuscripts curator John Haas will discuss the experiences of Ohioans who were there and those on the home front at the Historical Center. “See You on the Beach: 70th Anniversary of D-Day” is a free program with paid museum admission or society membership.
The documentary film “D-Day: Normandy 1944-3D” opened at the Air Force Museum Theatre in Dayton on May 24.