A Canadian veteran who was supposed to attend a D-Day celebration in France tomorrow has died just before departure. It’s about William Cameron. During the Allied landings in Normandy on 6 June 1944, he operated the anti-aircraft defense on one of the ships that escorted the landing craft.

Cameron died last Sunday at the age of 100. He was scheduled to travel to France on Monday with a Canadian delegation to commemorate Victory Day.

Tomorrow marks 80 years since soldiers from Great Britain, the United States and Canada surprised German occupiers with a large-scale landing on the beaches of Normandy. The operation marked the beginning of the liberation of Western Europe.

At the commemoration ceremony to be held tomorrow on Omaha Beach, in addition to about 200 veterans, many heads of state and government will attend. Among them are President Macron, US President Biden, and Ukrainian President Zelensky.

Cameron’s memories of D-Day are recorded at a museum in Juno Beach in Normandy. “I can tell you it was terrible,” he said in a video. “We were all afraid. Especially when the enemy planes were attacking us directly.”

When Cameron was 91, he received France’s highest award for his role in D-Day. In response to Cameron’s death, the French consulate in Vancouver wrote: “France will never forget what the country owes him.”