Keith Gaze — The Soldier Who Died Twice on D-Day

Private Keith Gaze of the British 12th Parachute Battalion parachuted into Normandy on June 6, 1944, as part of Operation Tonga. During fighting shortly after landing in the early morning hours, he was shot in the head. His comrades, assuming him dead, covered his body with a parachute and moved on. Hours later, Gaze woke up under the parachute, pushed it aside, and returned to fighting with his unit — having survived a bullet through the head. He fought for several more hours. He was then shot again — this time fatally — later that same day during a German counterattack. He died a second time, but his first death was enough to earn him a mention in dispatches posthumously. A memorial to Gaze on the Normandy battlefield reads 'Died twice for his country.'