US paratroopers 'brought us freedom', recalls D-Day witness It is just after dawn on the morning of June 6, 1944 when 20-year-old Charles Levaillant and his brother see the first paratroopers from the 82nd US Airborne division drop into Normandy to spark the D-Day landings: "... they were bringing us something precious, freedom, and when you are 20 years old that's something important," recalls Levaillant, whose family even helped hide one of the paratroopers from the Germans.