52 THE QUEENS COURIER • BUZZ • OCTOBER 17, 2013 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.queenscourier.com ONSITE DOCTORS • EYE EXAMS • CONTACTS • 1 HOUR SERVICE • VISION PLANS ACCEPTED • SUNGLASSES • LOWEST PRICES 2 PAIR OF EYEGLASSES QC QC QC $59 Includes: EYE EXAM, Frames & Lenses Select frames with clear plastic, single vision lenses+/- 4 sph., 2 cyl. Not valid with any other offers, sales, vision plans or packages. Must present prior to purchase. Offer valid at this location only. Offer ends: 11/14/13 NO-LINE BIFOCAL EYEGLASSES $59 Includes: EYE EXAM, No-Line Bifocal Lenses & Frame Select frame with select clear plastic no-line bifocal lenses +/- 4 sph., 2 cyl up to 2.50 add. Not valid with any other offers, sales, vision plans or packages. Must present prior to purchase. Offer valid at this location only. Offer ends: 11/14/13 BAY TERRACE SHOPPING CENTER 211-51 26 AVENUE • BAYSIDE, NY 11360 718.631.3699 *FREE with the purchase of glasses. Contact Lens Exam and EYE EXAM tting add’l. *See store for details. QC FLEX SPENDING Use it or lose it! AMAZING Fall SAVINGS of the 2013 THE QUEENS QueensCourier.com DISPOSABLE CONTACTS $59 Includes: •EYE EXAM •2 Boxes of Lenses Contact Lens Fitting additional. Clear Soft contacts brand clear spherical lenses.Not Valid with any other offers, sales, vision plans or packages. Must present prior to purchase. Offer ends: 11/14/13 buzz A RETURN TO NORMANDY WITH HONOR BY ALAN CAPPER “I was one of those American soldiers who was put off the landing craft too soon when it was still over 10 feet of water. All around me men were drowning before they could get to the beach. We were carrying packs weighing 45 pounds, and a rifl e weighing another 10. I sank to the bottom, but fortunately I was physically strong enough to keep bouncing up from the bottom to grab some mouthfuls of air, and then a huge wave hit me and I was pushed to the beach. I was in France. It was D-Day 6th of June, 1944.” Tony Vaccaro, the great photographer who was featured in LIC Courier in July, is about to leave his home in Long Island City to return to Normandy, this time to be honored in some of the towns he helped liberate. In addition, there will be a major exhibition of his war photography at the International War Museum in Caen, one of the cities that was the subject of some of the fi ercest fi ghting of the war. Already honored by both the French and German governments for his work, this trip will return him to places where he witnessed absolute horror -- and much valor with his comrades in the 83rd Infantry Division. He is also being taken back on the Queen Mary by a French fi lm company, Sundeck Films, which will make a documentary about Tony’s return to Normandy, and will use some of the crossing to interview him in detail about his war experiences. The fi lm will be shown on French television in 2014. During the war, Vaccaro was on a journey that would take him from the beach to 40 miles from Berlin in the ruins of the Third Reich. Getting off the beach and driving through Avranches to St. Denis and then the liberation of St. Malo was the beginning of a series of liberations of villages and towns. The Germans fought hard and it was a long and painful road with many losses. “I know that some of my comrades felt that the French people were resentful of them, and did not like them as a result. I had the good fortune of being able to speak French, and therefore to really understand them. I like the French people very much and was glad to be there.” As the war progressed, its grimness did not recede. Vaccaro was in his foxhole when a shell burst nearby, killing two colonels. “I always dug my foxholes deeper than most,” he said. “I had worked on the family farm and knew how to use tools, and even when the ground was hard in winter I still dug deep. It probably saved my life.” After the fall of Paris, the drive into Germany began. Vaccaro was involved in the Battle of the Bulge, Germany’s last great offensive and all the vicious smaller battles on the way. He recalled the moment when he killed his fi rst German soldier. “The impact on me was enormous. I cried, and just took off and ran for 100 yards or so. It was an awful moment, but after I composed myself I was reminded of why I was there, and that if he had shot fi rst I would have been dead.” The photographs that he took have formed the basis of a book published by Taschen, “Into Germany-1944-1946,” and the basis of an exhibition, which has been seen in Germany and many other countries. Elements of this will be included in the exhibition in Caen. In January 1945 Vaccaro and three other soldiers were lying in the snow on the outskirts of a small village in Belgium, the scene of heavy fi ghting. They were tense, expecting more confl ict at any time. Suddenly, through the mist a shape emerged. It was a single German soldier coming towards them. Their fi ngers were on the triggers ready to kill him when the soldier, not knowing they were there, threw his rifl e into the snow, shouting in German, “I am sick and tired of this bloody war!” Within seconds he was captured by the group, and was much relieved to be so. “The German spoke for all of us,” recalls Vaccaro. This return with honor to Normandy will bring back many memories, but Vaccaro will bring to his audiences the humanity and nobility that makes his photography great. Photo by Tony Vaccaro
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