‘I’m proud and grateful that I survived and had the experience’
French President Nicolas Sarkozy will present Kellers with a medal making him a Chevalier (Knight) of the Legion of Honour at a ceremony marking the anniversary of the 1944 Allied invasion that liberated France from Nazi Germany in World War Two.
Kellers is one of around 20 US veterans who flew to France for the ceremony to be attended by US President Barack Obama.
He was an 18-year-old from rural Long Island, New York, when he saw combat for the first time aboard the landing craft LCT 539, which carried infantry and combat engineering equipment onto Omaha Beach in Normandy.
“The most terrifying to me was when a fellow got hit in the head and his head exploded. There was nothing but this pink, reddish pink, and we had it all over our uniforms and what we were wearing, and at that time you really knew it was a serious business,” he said.
France changed the terms of the Legion of Honour in 2004 to open it up to foreign World War Two veterans who served on French soil, opening the way for US veterans like Kellers to be honoured.
Kellers enlisted in the navy in June 1943 at the age of 17, a decision he said was driven less by patriotism than because all his friends had enlisted.
He recalls gruesome piles of human remains, arms and legs of soldiers killed in the fighting.
“I can still distinctly remember one foot and leg, the fellow had to be red haired, very coarse, and you could see the hair on that thing,” Kellers said.
“I still don’t understand why it didn’t have the effect it maybe should have had,” he said.
Kellers said he was excited to be returning to France, years, joking that he will have been there twice in his life — “Once paid for by the US government, the US navy, and the other by the French government. I’m so proud, and grateful that I survived, obviously, and grateful that I had that experience,” he said.
For one British veteran, June 6 does not simply mark a day of bloody battle when he helped storm the D-Day beaches, it is also his birthday.
Former Royal Navy Seaman Peter Thompson landed on Sword Beach on June 6, 1944 — his 19th birthday — helping land supplies and collect about 500 casualties to return to Britain that morning.
He was one of many D-Day survivors, now in their late 80s, who made the ferry trip from Portsmouth to Caen this week on his 27th trip to Normandy.
Thompson from Woking, who is chairman of the Normandy Veterans Association, Surrey Branch, turns 84 today.
He served on HM LST-304 helping land tanks and lorries filled with vital supplies, such as petrol, ammunition and food for the troops on D-Day and during the Normandy campaign.
He recalled setting sail at 11.30pm on June 5 from Portsmouth.
“They arrived at 6.30am but many were so seasick they were eager to face the guns.
“It was horrendous on board,” he said. “It was very rough for the soldiers. We were used to it but they were glad to get off and get shot rather than stay on board for any longer. It was a hell of a mess.”
But what awaited them was a horror beyond anything they could imagine. Many were shot as soon as the hatches were opened.
Thompson was in charge of operating the bow doors and then helping load about 500 badly wounded casualties on board.
He hopes to keep returning to Normandy despite his advancing years. “It won’t be the last time I will be going, I shall be going as long as I live,” he said.
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