Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg‘s wives opted to let their husbands take centre stage at the D-Day Anniversary event, with the pair staying in Paris to enjoy a shopping trip on Wednesday.
Rita Wilson and Kate Capshaw made the most of the French capital’s designer boutiques with a spot of retail therapy, a day before the world’s leaders descended on Normandy to mark 80 years since the famous landing.
Tom and Steven were among the big names in attendance after famously starring in and directing the war epic Saving Private Ryan, which opens with a horrific depiction of the D-Day landing.
Rita cut a stylish figure in a linen cream jacket and brown jumper, teamed with cropped white trousers as she shopped in the city.
Kate, who married Steven back in 1991, was dressed in an elegant white shirt and a tweed blazer, teamed with a chic white beanie hat.
Hours later, both Tom and Steven were pictured at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, which overlooks Omaha Beach.
There were tears from those in attendance as memories from veterans who survived the conflict were read out.
Nearly 160,000 Allied troops landed in Normandy on June 6, 1944. Of those, 73,000 were from the United States and 83,000 from Britain and Canada. Forces from several other countries were also involved, including French troops fighting with Gen. Charles de Gaulle.
The Allies faced around 50,000 German forces.
Spielberg’s father, Arnold, was drafted into the US military in January 1942, a month after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Thanks to his skills with radio equipment, Arnold was put in the Signal Corps.
He eventually rose to the rank of Communications Chief in the 409th Bomb Squadron which was based in India. It’s estimated that the Spielberg family lost as many as 20 relatives in Nazi concentration camps. Arnold passed away in 2020.
Just this year, Hanks and Spielberg teamed up once again to executive produce the Apple TV+ series Masters of the Air.
Joining Their Majesties King Charles and Queen Camilla at the event was Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Charles, along with President Macron, Sunak and military leaders laid wreathes of poppies at the memorial as Elgar’s Nimrod was performed by a brass band in the background, with the national anthems of France and the United Kingdom also being played as the Red Arrows roared overhead.
Elsewhere Prince William was pictured attending at Juno Beach, where thousands of Canadian troops lost their lives, along with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ahead of an international gathering later in the day which is set to include US president Joe Biden.
The veterans in attendance were recognised by the crowd for their efforts as their numbers dwindle with each year that passes – at the 75th anniversary five years ago 255 travelled to France, compared to the 50 who have made the journey this time around.
At Ver-sur-Mer, Charles led 2,000 dignitaries, military personnel and veterans in paying tribute to those who stormed the beaches.
The monarch looked emotional as he listened to singer Johnny Flynn perform ‘Song with no Name’ in tribute to the fallen, while Camilla was seen wiping her eyes as actor Martin Freeman read a touching diary entry from one survivor who remarked ‘it’s because of the lads [who died] that I’m here today’.
Charles also paid tribute to the ‘remarkable wartime generation’ who made the ultimate sacrifice to keep the world safe from tyranny on the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings.
Speaking to commemorate the veterans in Normandy, he expressed his ‘profound sense of gratitude’ for the men and woman ‘who did not flinch when the moment came to face that test.’
He described the ‘supreme test’ faced by the troops, in reference to the speech made by his grandfather, George VI, who broadcast to the nation 80 years ago: ‘Once more a supreme test has to be faced. This time the challenge is not to fight to survive, but to fight to win the final victory for the good cause.’
He also spoke of the importance in remembering what the War taught us: ‘We recall the lesson that comes to us again and again across the decades: Free nations must stand together to oppose tyranny.’
He closed: ‘Our gratitude is unfailing and our admiration eternal.’
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Earlier in the day, a lone military piper played on Gold Beach to mark the moment the first British troops stormed the Normandy coast on D-Day 80 years ago today.
Pipe Major Trevor Macey-Lillie played Highland Laddie as he was carried to the beach at Arromanches on a Royal Marines amphibious landing craft flanked by service members at the exact moment the first troops waded ashore as part of the Normandy landings.
Crowds gathered at the beach to view the reenactment, which harkened back to a lone piper who played during the landings itself and was never shot at, during a picturesque sunrise – a far cry from the cloudy and rough seas that welcomed 25,000 soldiers who landed on the same stretch of coast in 1944.
Saving Private Ryan is considered to be one of legendary director Steven Spielberg’s best films, and one of the best war films ever made, nominated for 11 Oscars and winning six, including Best Director for Spielberg
The film is set in 1944 France during World War II, following a battalion lead by Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) to find Private James Ryan, after it was learned his three brothers had been killed in action.
It also famously opens with a glimpse into the mayhem on June 6, 1944 at Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, which would come to be known as D-Day.