The men stood by themselves on Omaha Beach in the early hours of Saturday, dressed in vintage battle fatigues — with 6 feet between them.
They looked out across the water where hundreds of thousands of soldiers — Americans, Brits and Canadians — came ashore on June 6, 1944, to launch the battle that changed the course of World War II.
The gathering to mark the anniversary of the invasion, which came to be known simply as D-Day, was extraordinarily small, a few dozen — driven down by fear of the coronavirus, The Associated Press reported.
Every other year has brought out throngs to mark the liberation from Nazi oppression.
Last year, on the 75th anniversary, tens of thousands from around the globe streamed onto France’s beaches of Normandy to cheer the dwindling number of D-Day veterans.

Charles Shay was one of those troops who stormed Omaha Beach, a 19-year-old Army medic who found himself dodging machine gun fire and exploding shells.

“I am very sad now,” Shay, now 95, told the AP. “Because of the virus, nobody can be here. I would like to see more of us here.”

After the war, Shay settled down near the beaches that came to define his life. His home is why he was virtually the only American survivor who stood on the sand Saturday — his fellow veterans could not fly in because of the pandemic.

In better times, the French rolled out vintage jeep and trucks — their rumble heard for miles. On Saturday, the roads were deserted around Saint-Laurent-Sur-Mer, a town near Omaha Beach.