For 87-year-old Huang Tingxin, June 6 is no ordinary day. As a Chinese naval officer, Huang participated in the allied forces' Normandy Landing operation on the day 61 years ago.
The veteran, who now lives in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province, is the only one known to be alive today on the Chinese mainland among 24 Chinese naval officers who took part in the operation that cracked the Nazi grip on western Europe.
For most of the past decades, Huang led a low-key life, seldom talking of his experiences in World War II. But the old man, who is now troubled by Parkinson's Syndrome, is now recounting the extraordinary experience to his son.
Huang, who was educated at a naval school in the late 1930s in Qingdao, Shandong Province, and 23 other naval officers were selected by the Chinese army to study at the Britannia Royal Naval College in Greenwich in 1942, and they were sent to fleets in different war theaters for internship in March 1944.
Huang served on an escort carrier named "Searcher." His duty was to keep watch over the angle of the carrier on the sea and its position in the fleet formation. "It was no small task, as smooth landing and takeoff of aircraft depended on correct sailing of the carrier," Huang said.
All the D-Day landing operations took place quietly in Huang's memory. On the evening of June 5, 1944, the Searcher was still anchored in Belfast. But it left the harbor quietly at midnight, sailing southward.
"We knew the action would be something special, but none of us knew what that would be," Huang recalled.
It was not until the next morning that Huang and his fellows got to know from the British Broadcasting Corp that the allied forces had landed at Normandy, France.
"And only then did we know what our mission was that night," Huang said. "All of us were overjoyed at the news, but we didn't feel completely relieved until our escort mission ended when news came a few days later that the allied forces were moving into the continent smoothly."
Huang said all his Chinese fellows took part in the operation, and some of them were on warships, which helped destroy many of German army's defense establishments.
Huang finished his internship on the Searcher at the end of 1944 and continued his naval studies at the royal college.
He said that he had expected to use what he learned in Britain in his country's fight against Japanese invaders after he finished his studies and was dispatched to the Pacific fleet of Britain. Japan, however, surrendered before he could report for duty to the fleet headquarters.
Huang returned to China in 1948 and in 1958, he retired from the navy.
Huang Shansong, his son, said that his father wants his account to be recorded to remind people that peace, something that can be easily ruined by war, is not easily regained. "The war ended, but history should by no means be forgotten. I hope war one day can only be found in historical documents," said the old man.