Léon Gautier was a veteran of the French military, the country’s last surviving D-Day veteran.
- Died: July 3, 2023 (Who else died on July 3?)
- Details of death: Died in Caen, France, at the age of 100.
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Léon Gautier’s legacy
Gautier managed to get out of France before the Nazi occupation. Having enlisted in the French Navy, he fled to the UK, reconnecting with Allied forces and becoming part of the Kieffer commandos, a small unit of French fighters who battled alongside British, Canadian, and U.S. forces, among others. There, he was part of the Free France movement and fought in Congo, Syria and Lebanon.
On June 6, 1944, Gautier was one of 177 French commandos who landed at Normandy as part of the D-Day invasion. More than half of his unit were killed in the ensuring battle. Allied Forces suffered high casualties but gained a foothold on mainland Europe, taking a major step towards ending the Nazi regime.
After the war, Gautier campaigned for peace, speaking out against the brutalities of war. He retired to Ouistreham in the Normandy section of France. He told Reuters in 2019, “Perhaps I orphaned children, perhaps I widowed a woman or made a mother cry… I didn’t want to do that. I’m not a bad man.”
Notable quote
“You kill people on the other side who never did anything to you, who have families, and children. For what?”—from a speech during Gautier’s 100th birthday
Tributes to Léon Gautier
Full obituary: The New York Times
