US

German Machine Guns Riddled An American Flag On D-Day. 75 Years Later It Makes Its Way Back To America

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A bullet-riddled U.S. flag flown aboard a landing craft used to storm the beaches of Normandy, France, on D-Day came home Thursday.

The flag, donated by retired Dutch businessman Bert Kreuk, was given to President Donald Trump by Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte in a White House ceremony, Reuters reported.

“It is my honor to welcome this great American flag back home where it belongs,” said Trump.

“I cannot keep it myself. It needs to go to the right institution. I need to give it back,” Kreuk told Reuters ahead of the ceremony.

The flag’s fabric was tattered by the wind and shows bullet holes from taking German fire. It originally flew over the U.S. Navy’s Landing Craft Control (LCC) 60 as it advanced onto Utah Beach along with two similar vessels on June 6, 1944.

LCC 60 had a 14-member crew commanded by former schoolteacher and U.S. Navy Lieutenant Howard Vander Beek, originally from Cedar Falls, Iowa. After D-Day, Vander Beek took the flag home.

He kept the flag until his death in 2014, when it was auctioned by Vander Beek’s family. Kreuk bought it for $514,000 with the intention of donating it back to the United States, according to the Washington Post.

“Amid treacherous German minefields, raging winds, and rough seas, Lt. Vander Beek and his crew led an astonishing 19 waves of American troops and equipment to those very, very dangerous beaches,” Trump said.

“Through it all, this flag soared proudly above the waters of the English Channel, announcing the arrival of our American warriors,” he added.

It will be displayed at the Smithsonian Institution.