My grandfather was as well. When asked, he would say “they weren’t there as tourists”. He talked little of it until going to France for the 50th Anniversary. After that, we learned that he was “lucky” to have been in one of the later craft. I found it interesting that you mentioned they had to walk bent over at the waist- he had his hip shattered by rifle fire after he had made it inland “maybe a mile”. Makes me wonder if that was his highest point at that moment and gives me even more of a picture of him. He said he was propped up against a fence pole so that when medics got there they would recognize him as one that might live with their attention.
But for them, the fight started earlier.
They were stationed at air fields in S. England....and had been bombed routinely leading up to the invasion.
The one time my father actually cried was when he talked about night drills to scramble aircraft in the dark. A soldier backed up his jeep into a prop.
Also, he was very emotional talking about crews sitting out on the tarmac until their ship would return, after a raid. He said that crew members didn't go the into mess until their ship returned. He said that sitting there in the mess looking at guys still out on the tarmac, who were waiting for their ship long after any possibility of its return, was difficult. He said 'we couldn't even eat'.