D-Day veteran Kenneth Hay, who endured capture and forced labor in a coal mine after storming the beaches of Normandy, has died at the age of 101. The British Normandy Memorial described him as an "extraordinary gentleman whose remarkable life will never be forgotten."
D-Day, which took place on June 6, 1944, marked the beginning of the liberation of France from Nazi occupation, with British, American, and Canadian troops landing along the Normandy coastline.
Hay landed at Courseulles-sur-Mer a few days after the initial invasion. During a night patrol on July 7-8, he and his unit encountered German forces. "We went out on night patrol, was supposed to be doing a blow up of a self-propelled gun in no man's land, but in fact, it was behind their lines," Hay recalled in 2024. "So they let us through and then very unfriendly, they sealed it and wouldn't let us back, so we had a battle."
Of the 30 soldiers on his patrol, five were captured, including Hay. He later recounted that his initial feelings upon capture were of "dread" and "fear."
He was taken to Zabrze, Poland, where he was forced to work as a prisoner of war in a coal mine. As Russian forces advanced, the prisoners were marched approximately 1,000 miles to a new location. Many died during this arduous journey. Hay himself described a point during the three-month march where he "lay down to die" due to the pain, but two friends intervened, helping him continue by supporting him. Maze