100 year old WWII veteran returns to Normandy beach in France to marry his 96 year old bride (photos)

A World War Two 100 year old veteran, has returned to France to marry his 96-year-old bride as world leaders gathered to commemorate D-Day.

Almost exactly to the day 80 years ago, troops parachuted in behind Nazi lines to capture Carentan and stop German reinforcements from defending the beaches.

More than 4,000 Allied soldiers died – and entire boats filled with men were lost when they stormed the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944.

 

Last week’s 80th anniversary of D-Day could likely be the last major commemoration where WWII veterans are present.

But one of them, Harold Terens, a 100 year old man showed it’s never too late for love when he married his sweetheart Jeanne Swerlin, 96, near the Normandy beaches on Saturday, June 8.

The two Americans wed in the town hall of Carentan, northern France, which was one of the Allied forces’ first key locations to liberate.

 

‘With this ring, I thee wed’, Mr Terens said, to which Ms Swerlin gasped and giggled: ‘Really?’

 

Terens wore a light blue suit with a pink handkerchief tucked in his breast pocket to resemble Swerlin’s dress.

During the toast, Terens took the opportunity to cast attention to wars raging right now.

‘To everybody’s good health’, he said.

‘And to peace in the world and the preservation of democracy all over the world and the end of the war in Ukraine and Gaza.’

 

The couple were invited to spend their wedding-night with French President Emmanuel Macron and the USA’s President Biden at a state dinner in the Élysée Palace.

Mr Terens called it ‘the best day of my life’.