Archive news footage of D-Day and the final push into Europe that ended World War II.


In the early morning of June 6, 1944, thick clouds hung over the beaches at Normandy, France, and the sea pitched and rolled.

Throughout the day, about 156,000 American, British and Canadian soldiers stormed the 50-mile stretch of beach and launched the Battle of Normandy.

Among them was 97-year-old Loveland resident Larry Friedlan, who was then a 25-year-old medic with the 35th Infantry Division and the 110th Medical Battalion. He landed on the beach code-named Omaha, where more than 2,000 died. He witnessed firsthand the bloodshed and terror that was D-Day.

“To this day, I don’t know what possessed me to live a life like that,” he said, wiping tears from his eyes. “I don’t know. I’m thinking that the parents of all those who suffered and died at Omaha Beach will be blessed by God for the loss of their children.”

He talked quietly, pausing occasionally as he recalled the memories of that day. Now, 72 years later, his sorrow still seems fresh.

Replicas of his medals hang on the wall at his home in retirement community MacKenzie Place, including his combat medals from both WWII and the Korean War and an American Defense Service Medal for good conduct. A 1941 photo shows his medical regiment, and a red, white and blue ribbon hangs quietly in the window.

"We lost a lot of men there"

Friedlan, one of 12 children, quit school when he was 14 and joined the Army at age 18. As a medical student, he learned first-aid techniques. Although his formal education ended early, he had a thirst for knowledge and threw himself into his medical training. Friedlan jumped at the opportunity to continue his training, and pursued more education in Arkansas. He studied at an Army and Navy hospital in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and did surgical work.

When his infantry division was called to service, they boarded a ship to England. There, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower lined up the unit, went through the ranks and told them what they would be facing with the coming invasion of Normandy. The infantry soldiers were to move in first, with the medics following later.

THANK-YOUS: Community members write letters to service members, veterans

“They gave us notice that we were going to have to invade Normandy, so we were all prepared,” he said, his eyes filling with tears. “A lot of infantry were killed because the Germans had pillboxes on each side of the landing. They kind of mowed the infantry down, and we lost a lot of men there.”

In the coming days, he said, the ocean water turned orange, filling with the blood of fallen men.

Show Thumbnails
Show Captions

The Second Army, one of the American field army formations, entered into an agreement with the Germans that they would abide by the Geneva Convention, and neither side would shoot medics. So, dressed with a square medic's cross on his helmet and his armband, Friedlan worked the front lines to help the wounded.

“(The agreement) would give us a chance to heal some of them; we could work the front lines and help those that needed medical help," he said, cradling his head in his hands. "But we couldn’t do them all.”

At one point, Friedlan found a way to get up and around a small hill and tend to wounded soldiers hidden behind the rise.

PHOTOS:  Boy Scouts place flags at the graves of veterans

Despite these small moments of ingenuity, he doesn't have happy memories from the war. He recounted the losses of the young men that he witnessed, many of whom were just teenagers. He spent much of the war on his knees, helping those wounded and dying boys. What made it worse for him was that they were his friends; he knew them well.

“No one can ever visualize how horrible it was to be worthless,” he said of the ever-mounting death tolls as men were mowed down. But, he said his love of his family and of his country kept him going.

A lasting grief

After Normandy, he moved through France, Germany and Belgium. Winter fell, and many days hovered around 12 degrees. Men were losing hands and feet to frostbite.

In December 1944, he tended to men who were wounded in the Battle of the Bulge, a turning point for the Allied forces. German forces led a surprise offensive attack through the heavily-forested south of Belgium that was meant to divide the American forces and push them west. Despite more than 100,000 American casualties and desperate fighting, Gen. George S. Patton was able to turn the Third Army and stop the attack. This would be the last major German offensive move in the war.

"He never really talked too much about it all when I was growing up," Friedlan's daughter Angi Bartine said. "He has more so since my mom passed away. He's been talking a lot more about all the experiences he had."

Friedlan said he’ll always be thankful he chose to be a medic, both because he could help people, and because it gave him a better chance to get home to his family. Once he was discharged, he suffered from a nervous condition that doctors couldn’t seem to fix.

They sent him to Firth, Germany, for three years to recover. He witnessed the Nuremberg trials and met his wife, Maria Hildegart Friedlan. They moved back the U.S. where they started a family together. He had to leave them for a year to serve as a medic in the Korean War, where they were in desperate need of the help.

Unlike in WWII, no agreement existed in the Korean War to protect the medics. But Friedlan made it back alive. He built a life as an entrepreneur, founding restaurants and liquor stores with his wife in Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming. They had children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Eventually, they settled in Loveland, where Maria passed away at the age of 94 in 2014. Friedlan said his family is what keeps him going even now.

VETERANS:  CSU student spearheads new American Legion post

But, even with their love and support, he still carries his grief from the war, seven decades later.

"You wouldn’t think that a guy my age would be crying like that,” he said.

He hopes nothing like the horrors he witnessed will ever happen again.

“I think that people ought to appreciate the fact that they’re here and love and care for each other,” he said.

Read or Share this story: