Last French Survivor of D-Day Leon Gautier dies at the age of 100 (Monday July 3rd)

[Leonardo17]

Born in Rennes on October 27, 1922, Gautier joined the navy at the age of 17, in February 1940. In June 1940, he set sail for England. While at sea, he learned through the radio about the existence of France Libre (Free France), based in London. He rushed to join General Charles de Gaulle, taking part in the July 14 parade in the British capital. In 1943, he volunteered to join the 1st Batallion of Fusiliers Marins Commandos, a unit of the Free French Navy, which would later be known as the "Kieffer Commando." Gautier was one of 177 French green berets who stormed the Normandy beaches defended by Hitler's forces in 1944.
 
About 4500 Allied troops died on D-Day (2500 of these were American). There is about a thousand D-Day Survivor in the US. But there are only 6 of them left in the UK and this Leon Gautier was the last French Survivor of D-Day. He was
 
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/fra...023-07-03/
 
Here are some of his comments on the issue of war:
 
"War is a misery. Not all that long ago, and perhaps you find this silly, but I would think ‘perhaps I killed a young lad, perhaps I orphaned children, perhaps I widowed a woman or made a mother cry’," he said.
 
"I didn’t want that. I’m not a bad man. You kill a man who’s done nothing to you. That’s war and you do it for your country."
 
He also said at some point:
 
“We are not heroes, we were only doing our duty”.