America's Largest WWII Reenactment to be held August 19-20th in Conneaut, Ohio

  CONNEAUT, OH - 08/16/2016 (PRESS RELEASE JET)

D-Day Conneaut,  America's largest WWII reenactment, with over 1800 reenactors from the United States and Canada, will be heldAugust 19-20th in Conneaut, Ohio.

D-Day Conneaut is not only America's premier WWII living history event, it is a cultural, social, and highly authentic reenactment of the days and weeks leading up to and including the invasion of France.

D-Day Ohio is an annual event that is free to the public and allows attendees to experience one of the most important events in this nation's history. You can see men, women, their machines of war, and learn how they lived and trained. Experience four mock battles. Explore fully working Allied and Axis camps complete with troops and their equipment.

Visitors will see numerous living history displays with re-enactors depicting medical units, weapons depots, field kitchens, the Red Cross, war photographers, and radio switchboards and communication stations.

There are demonstrations on tactics and firing of weapons including the only live firing German 88 in the United States. See the vehicles that were used including 6 different Tanks, DUKW amphibious crafts, Amtrak, and multiple working Higgins boats.

Come meet over 180 WWII veterans who served and hear their stories. Notable veterans include Hershel “Woody” Williams, one of the 6 remaining Medal of Honor recipients from WWII.  Seven more veterans of WWII will be receiving the French Legion d’honneur citation at the events third annual “Salute to Veterans” ceremony slated for Saturday at 12:15.

Saturday afternoon is the main event; the landing of the beach.  See 3/4 scale T-51 mustangs and a fully restored B-25 Bomber fly over the beaches on Saturday while hundreds of US, British, and Canadian troops storm the German held bluffs.

Each year reenactors from as far away as California and Canada make the pilgrimage (at their own expense) to Conneaut to keep the stories alive and honor those who gave so much. With over 1800 reenactors in attendance, D-Day Conneaut is the largest US reenactment of the European Theater of Operations and D-Day Normandy invasion and now the largest WWII reenactment in the country.

Since 1999, this re-creation of the events surrounding the allied landings on the coast of Normandy, France has thrilled tens of thousands of spectators and now boasts a yearly event attendance over 35,000.

The event occurs within the beautifully landscaped grounds of Conneaut Township Park, in Conneaut, Ohio, near the border of Ohio/Pennsylvania, just off Interstate 90. Conneaut's 250-yard long beach and sloping adjacent terrain, where the main battle reenactment takes place, closely resemble Omaha Beach in Normandy, France. Other areas of the park provide secluded venues for recreations of inland skirmishes between the occupying German soldiers, French resistance fighters, and Allied parachute and Glider infantry. For more information visit: www.ddayohio.us.

D-Day Conneaut's mission is to educate the public about the sacrifice of those who fought and those who died on the beaches of Normandy, June 6, 1944 and to encourage remembrance, honor, and respect for the soldiers of the Allied and Axis armies of World War II.

Through the encampments, battle reenactments, lectures, displays and tours, the public gains an understanding of the events that occurred prior to June 6, 1944, and the sacrifices made during and after the invasion.