US paratroopers "brought us freedom", recalls D-Day witness Just after dawn on the morning of 6 June 1944, 20-year-old Charles Levaillant and his brother see the first paratroopers from the 82nd US Airborne division drop into Normandy: "...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.