Last survivor of the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, Léon Gautier died on Monday July 3, 2023. In his memoirs, he recounted the course of this historic day.
He appeared in public for the last time on June 6, 2023, alongside Emmanuel Macron, to celebrate the 79th anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy. Léon Gautier, the last survivor of this historic day during the Second World War, died on Monday, July 3, at the age of 100. Last living member of the Kieffer commando who had arrived on the Normandy beaches to fight the Germans, he had been hospitalized for several days. “There is information greater than the others. There are men greater than the others”, commented Eric Bothorel, Renaissance deputy for Côtes-d’Armor.
Having preserved all his memories of this famous June 6, Léon Gautier compiled them in a book, Mon Débarquement. In this book, he confides in particular that he was the second man to set foot on the beach of Sword Beach, behind Commander Alexandre Lofi, who had paved the way. Still remembering, decades later, the hours leading up to D-Day: “Before the assault was launched, Kieffer rounded us up before departure and said, ‘Gentlemen you know the plans, you know what awaits you, there may not be a dozen of you who will come back intact. Anyone who doesn’t want to leave, let him come and see me. I wouldn’t blame him.’ Everybody is gone.”
