PARIS (AP) — Family members of soldiers who were wounded or died during World War I are among the large crowds lining a rain-soaked Champs-Elysees Avenue in Paris for the commemoration of the war's end a century ago.
Peter Kearsey, a 72-year-old from Australia, recalled the 28 facial reconstruction surgeries his father underwent after having his face torn apart by shrapnel in 1917 in Belgium. Kearsey says his father, Bill, survived thanks to a friend who pulled him from a trench.
Kearsey said the rain that fell during the ceremony for the centenary of the armistice "is very fitting" since soldiers who fought in trenches during the Great War endured miserable rain and mud.
He added: "It's raining today, 100 years later."
The Kearsey family also is touring WWI battlefields during their trip.
