A French technology lets museum visitors in Ohio travel back in time to the coast of Normandy, France, to commemorate the D-Day invasion of 75 years ago.
“It’s a very exciting adventure,” said Bruno de Sa Moreira, whose company created an interactive tablet to enhance the experience of museumgoers. Speaking to the Associated Press, he said, “We are basically telling our joint history, when the American soldiers fought for the liberty of France. We have a common past and a common duty to remember.”
Nearly 160,000 American, British and Canadian troops landed on the coast of Normandy on D-Day, opening the Western Front of World War II. An estimated 10,000 allied forces were killed, wounded or missing in action on D-Day, including 6,603 Americans. The Allied forces liberated Europe from the Nazis the following year.
Visitors at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, can experience this largest air and sea invasion in history using the tablet, developed by Histovery. It re-creates events with augmented-reality animation, photos, maps and historic video footage. Viewers can contrast events as they took place on June 6, 1944, with modern images of the sites.
On June 6, President Trump and first lady Melania Trump will observe the 75th anniversary of D-Day at the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer with French President Emmanuel Macron. The president and first lady will attend an earlier D-Day ceremony with British Queen Elizabeth II in Portsmouth, England, the city from which Americans, British and Canadians staged their surprise attack.
