'There Were So Many Casualties': 94-Year-Old D-Day Hero Reflects On 75th Anniversary
OLD BETHPAGE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) - Walter Blum was captain of Great Neck High School's track team.
Drafted at age 18, he soon found himself part of the longest day, the largest seaborne invasion in history.
"I am the only one left," he told CBS2's Jennifer McLogan.
At age 94, he's the only one left of his platoon who stormed Normandy beaches 75 years ago.
Blum's knees were shattered by shrapnel. He was awarded the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star and French Legion of Honor.
He was among the D-Day heroes honored at the Museum of American Armor in Old Bethpage.
The solemn anniversary signals the beginning of the downfall of the Third Reich.
This was not just a war between nations, but between belief systems, with so many good men dying to stop fascism and genocide, McLogan reported.
"Montbatten, Churchill, Eisenhower... The weather was such they couldn't send in aircraft to protect us," Blum said. "There were so many casualties that the men were just laying dead on the beach like a checkerboard."
And three alternatives.
"Either get a coffin, a stretcher or get buried," Blum said.
It fills 16-year-old Daniel Kroll of Great Neck with emotion to hear of the bravery of Allied troops against Adolf Hitler and his German occupation.
"My background as a Jew, I unfortunately had many relatives killed in the Holocaust," Kroll said.
"I feel sorry for those who died on the beach, buried in France, and not on American soil," Blum said.
We honor their sacrifice and bravery by continuing the fight for freedom.