Your D-Day thoughts and memories
 |  Soldiers from the U.S. Army's 16th Infantry Regiment wait for evacuation to a field hospital. |
|  VIDEO |
 WWII vets remember their fallen comrades. CNN's Christiane Amanpour reports
 Sights and sounds marking the 60th anniversary of the D-Day invasion in Normandy.
 Allied and German veterans join together in remembrance.
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(CNN) -- CNN asked viewers for their thoughts and memories on the 60th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France. Here are some of the e-mails we received:
Erick Dodge, Kenosha, Wisconsin:
My grandfather fought in Normandy, through the hedgerows, through France and Belgium. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He served as an attachment to the 101st Airborne and his team was used to gather military intelligence. He was taken prisoner when he was snooping behind enemy lines. During his interrogation the German company commander told my grandfather that he believed he was from Milwaukee, or maybe Racine, Wisconsin. Come to find out the German officer went to school in Racine, which is close to grandfather's home town. He then told him that Hitler was crazy, and that he wanted my grandfather to assure the safety of his men and surrendered his company to him. (My grandfather) had a passion for his life in the Army. He was wounded many times; after four purple hearts he stopped counting. The memories are still there for him, the night terrors, the smells. He knows the price of freedom.
Eric Comins, Buffalo, New York:
In May 1994, we flew to France for the 50th anniversary of the invasion. The weather was horrid, so one really got a feel for what the veterans experienced: Cold, gray skies, pouring rain and strong winds. It's hard to believe anyone could have made it off of the beach. There is so much open ground, and the bluffs are easily 20 feet high. The U.S. cemetery that overlooks Omaha Beach really put a lump in our throats. Between Omaha and Utah beaches is Pointe du Hoc, where the Army Rangers scaled high cliffs to disable German shore batteries. That too was unbelievable how men actually scaled those cliffs under constant fire and took the top of it. I was amazed how pock-marked the earth still is after the heavy pre-invasion bombardments. I stood at the base of a shell crater at least 17 feet below the surface of the earth. So much history. So many stories. Such a pivotal point in history.
Brian A. Bartindale, San Diego, California:
Flew on D-Day to drop dummy paratroopers to deceive the true landings from the Germans. What as site to behold. P.S.: The real job was the guys who came ashore.
Janeen, Mason, Ohio:
I visited Normandy in January. Standing on Omaha Beach by myself and imagining what it must have been like 60 years ago for soldiers to run onto the beach under the glare of enemy fire was a memory I shall never forget. I am 44 and my generation owes our very existence to the greatest generation ever. I shall never forget it as long as I live.
Werner Fleischer, The Plains, Virginia:
On June 6, 1944, I was 4 years old. My father was a member of the Wehrmacht fighting in Normandy, where he was captured during the invasion. He came home in 1946 and told me how well he was treated. He told me that the time he spent as a prisoner of war was the best time of his life. In his prison camp in Arizona he learned English, worked and got paid. He even had a driver's license from that state. He was invited to weddings and birthdays to tell his story. In 1962, I was lucky enough to come to the United States, and I never left. God bless America.
Fawn Lerner-Gilli, Tampa, Florida:
I took my high school students in Carey, Ohio to visit Normandy. It's amazing a place so beautiful and serene could have been the sight of such horrible suffering and death for so many. As I looked at my students I thought how so many young people near their ages died there so many years ago. Bless the soldiers and so many young people who have had their lives cut so short so many years ago. There are too many tombstones lying in American cemeteries throughout the world.
Arjan Vellekoop, Rozenburg, Netherlands:
I'm a 20-year-old man from Holland. In these times nobody, or almost nobody, is really interested in the history of this tremendous day. I can't imagine in what kind of hell these fantastic, brave soldiers have fought for our freedom. I can't know that, and I probably don't want to know it. But I can say one thing: What those guys did that day on the beaches of Normandy must never be forgotten. They did something very special. They gave away their freedom to fight for our freedom. They fought for people who lived hundreds of miles away and were unknown to them.
Retired U.S. Army Major John R. Armellino, Singer Island, Florida:
On June 6, 1944, I was the commanding officer of Company "L" of the 16th Infantry from the First Division, one of eight companies to land on Omaha Beach in the first wave of the Normandy invasion. Enemy fire peppered the ramps of the landing craft as they were lowered to allow my men to disembark and cross the 200 yards of open beach. The German pillboxes and machine-gun nests were laying a vicious crossfire on the beach. Many men were cut down as they left the landing craft.
Those who reached shore started running across the beach through heavy machine-gun crossfire, mortars, and artillery fire. We headed towards a bluff to give us cover. I lost many young soldiers who had joined my company right before the invasion. They had no fear and failed to hit the ground after every few yards running directly for cover. The more seasoned men hit the ground often and, as a result, avoided being hit by enemy fire. As I was directing a tank commander where to fire, I was hit and knocked down by enemy fire. My right leg was gushing blood. A piece of shrapnel from an anti-tank grenade had severed the main artery.
A medic applied a tourniquet, treated the wound with penicillin and wrapped it with bandage. He told me to remain on the beach and I would be evacuated after dark. I stayed on the beach the entire day under cover of the bluff and witnessed the successive waves of our troops cut down by the savage crossfire laid down by the Germans. By dusk, the beach was covered with dead and wounded soldiers. You could hardly walk the beach without stepping on the body of a dead or wounded soldier.
