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On June 8, 2024, World War II veteran Harold Terens and his fiancée, Jeanne Swerlin, held a wedding ceremony in Carentan-les-Marais, a village in Normandy, two days after France marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Terens was 100 and Swerlin was 96 at the time, according to coverage of the event. The ceremony was symbolic and carries no legal force as a marriage, although Terens regards it as official.
Who the couple are
Friends introduced Terens and Swerlin in 2021, and the two began dating. When the Associated Press interviewed them ahead of the trip, they danced to “Uptown Funk,” a detail the agency included in its March 10, 2024 report. Swerlin told Sky News before the ceremony that the romance was not only for the young: “It’s not just for young people, love, you know? We get butterflies. And we get a little action, also.” To The Washington Post, she put the relationship in starker terms: “It took 96 years to find out what love is all about.”
Terens’s wartime service
Terens’s connection to the anniversary is tied to his role in the U.S. Army Air Forces, as described in the AP account of his life:
- Enlistment (1942): Terens joined the U.S. Army Air Forces.
- Posting (1943): He shipped to Great Britain and served as a radio repair technician with a P-47 Thunderbolt squadron, which the report describes as a four-pilot squadron.
- D-Day (June 6, 1944): Terens said he repaired planes returning from France so they could rejoin the battle. He was in Britain on that day, not on the beaches, so he should not be described as a beach-landing combatant.
His account is personal testimony reported by the press, and the details above come from his own recollections as they were relayed in 2024.
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The ceremony and its legal status
A symbolic ceremony, not a legal marriage
Coverage from Sky News and The Washington Post described the event as symbolic. It was not a legally recognized marriage. Anyone reading the headline as a report of a valid civil wedding in France would be misreading the story.
What the mayor’s office said
The mayor’s office told reporters that the mayor could not legally marry the couple, because they were nonresident foreigners of Carentan. It also said the couple had not requested legal vows, so the ceremony was never a civil registration.
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Terens’s personal view
Terens told The Washington Post that he considered the marriage official to him, and he did not plan to pursue legal vows in the United States. That is a statement of personal belief, separate from the legal position above. His reaction to the day was direct: “There’s no love affair ever, fictional or otherwise, that’s better than ours.”
Timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1942 | Terens enlists in the U.S. Army Air Forces. |
| 1943 | He ships to Great Britain and serves as a radio repair technician with a P-47 Thunderbolt squadron. |
| June 6, 1944 | On D-Day, Terens says he repairs planes returning from France so they can return to battle. |
| 2021 | Friends introduce Terens and Swerlin, and they begin dating. |
| June 6, 2024 | France marks the 80th anniversary of D-Day. |
| June 8, 2024 | The couple holds the symbolic wedding ceremony in Carentan-les-Marais. |
The wider commemoration
The 2024 anniversary drew attention on both sides of the Atlantic. In Virginia, the National D-Day Memorial Foundation reported more than 8,000 in-person attendees and 23 D-Day and World War II veterans at its June 5–9 commemoration, according to its 2023–2024 Annual Report. Those figures describe the Foundation’s own events in Virginia. They do not measure the French commemoration or the Carentan-les-Marais ceremony.
The closeness between Normandy and the United States was a theme in AP’s reporting. The mayor of Carentan-les-Marais, Jean-Pierre Lhonneur, told AP: “Normandy is the 51st state.”
Quick Recap
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Sources
- Associated Press, “80 years after D-Day, a World War II veteran is getting married near beaches where US troops landed,” March 10, 2024.
- The Washington Post, “100-year-old vet returns to Normandy and marries bride, 96, near D-Day beaches,” June 9, 2024.
- Sky News, “WWII veteran ties the knot with 96-year-old bride near Normandy’s D-Day beaches,” June 9, 2024.
- National D-Day Memorial Foundation, 2023–2024 Annual Report.
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