• Tweeter

  • republish

African skirmishers, en route to the French coast, during the landing of August 15, 1944 in Provence. DR / ECPAD

Emmanuel Macron interrupts his summer break on August 15 to participate in the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the landing in Provence at the necropolis of Boulouris, near Saint-Raphaël (Var) where 464 fighters rest. The French president will be accompanied by two African leaders: Guinean presidents Alpha Condé and Ivorian Alassane Ouattara. Objective: to pay tribute to those soldiers from North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa who participated in the liberation of France.

On June 6, Emmanuel Macron was with Donald Trump in Normandy to salute the memory of the Allied soldiers who had landed on the French coast to chase the Nazis. Today, it is to African fighters that the President of the Republic wants to show the recognition of France for the part they have taken in the liberation of the country. In Provence, in August 1944, they were indeed the bulk of the troops of the 1st French Army.

→ Revisit the webdoc MEMORY ON THE MARKET, In the footsteps of the Senegalese tirailleurs of 1939-1945

With Alpha Condé, the Guinean president, who has to speak, and Alassane Ouattarra, the Ivorian president, also present, Emmanuel Macron will pay tribute to them.

This ceremony will be similar to the one held last November in Reims, a stage of Emmanuel Macron's homelessness, during which he wanted to honor the "heroes of the black army" of the First World War with the president. Malian, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita .

But Emmanuel Macron, who had not delivered a speech last November, this time will speak in front of his African counterparts but also his predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, who accepted the invitation of the Head of State and will participate at this commemoration, as he did in March, at the Plateau des Glières.

The American Alan Johnson recounts his disembarkation

Some Americans have also been mobilized for the landing launched on the Mediterranean coast and some make the trip every year to testify to the population. In La Motte, one of the first villages liberated by the allies, the joy of welcoming a veteran is immense.

With our special correspondent , Stéphane Geneste

In the small room of the municipal council of the town hall, the place is missing. They are thirty people gathered in a semicircle around Alan Jonhson, a 94-year-old American veteran. It was parachuted in the night of 14 to August 15, 1944 on the coasts of Provence.

Silent and focused, the participants in this exchange do not hesitate to smile when Alan Johnson shares his D-Day anecdotes. Each year, Alan Johnson returns to Provence to tell about his landing, and every year he is moved.

" It's important for me to share my memories, " he says. These are just my personal memories, and there are thousands of other people here who probably have a lot more to say. "

In the audience, a 26-year-old is dressed in a paratrooper's outfit. Loïc Jankoviac wrote a book about the regiment that liberated the village, a regiment that includes Alan Johnson:

" It's moving to see him come back here and be able to tell his stories he experienced when he was young. These are his personal stories he experienced during the Second World War. "

After the time of the testimony will come the time of the festival. The village will come alive all night to remember this Landing of August 15, 1944.