On June 10, 2024, La Poste issued a block composed of a stamp to mark the 80th anniversary of the landing in Normandy, it also commemorates the Way of Freedom.
Since June 6, 1944, the word “landing” has been inseparably linked to the beaches of Normandy. Neptune and Overlord in fact exceeded in their scale all the amphibious operations carried out by the Allies during the war, including the Provence landings (August 15, 1944).
On the morning of D-Day, the 25,000 sailors, 34,000 airmen, 23,500 paratroopers and 132,000 Allied soldiers who crossed the Channel bear witness to the immense mobilization of men, resources and technologies deployed by the Allies throughout the world to defeat the Nazi Reich. Planned by the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, the battles demonstrate the diversity of the alliance against the Axis forces: soldiers of thirteen nationalities fight for the freedom of the European peoples. Their determination meets that of the French Resistance which, in exile or clandestinity, takes part in the fight by providing information on the enemy or by attacking its rear. At the same time, thousands of families were victims of the bombings and saw the hope of victory mixed with mourning and ruins.
At a time when the last witnesses and contemporaries are disappearing, the transmission of memory is an essential issue. The 1,147 kilometers of the Freedom Route, whose terminals connect Normandy to the Ardennes, remind us that D-Day is a turning point but does not mean that France is liberated. In the following months, the violence of the fighting and the Nazi repression did not diminish in intensity. May younger generations continue to inscribe the memory of the Liberation in the landscapes they cross and in the figures – unknown or famous – who inspire them.
