Europe will mark Victory in Europe Day’s 80th anniversary as once unbreakable bonds with the US are under pressure.

D-Day veteran Charles Shay is about to take part next month in the 80th celebrations of the landings in Normandy that led to the liberation of France and Europe from Nazi Germany occupation.

Joy and sadness are pouring out of those on the beaches of Normandy for the 78th anniversary of D-Day.

In a small Normandy town where paratroopers landed in the early hours of D-Day, applause broke the silence to honor Charles Shay.

Due to coronavirus measures many ceremonies and memorials have been cancelled in the region with the exception of very small gatherings. I am very sad now," said Shay, who was a 19-year-old U.S. Army medic when he landed on Omaha Beach under horrific machine-gun fire and shells. It's a June 6th unlike any other," said Philippe Laillier, the mayor of Saint-Laurent-Sur-Mer, where he staged a small remembrance around the Omaha Beach monument. The pandemic has wreaked havoc across the world, infecting 6.6 million people, killing over 391,000 and devastating economies. It poses a particular threat to the elderly like the surviving D-Day veterans who are in their late nineties or older.