Benjamin Vandervoort; D-Day Hero’s Role Portrayed in Movie

Benjamin Hayes Vandervoort, 75, a hero of the D-Day invasion whose story was one of the many portrayed in the movie “The Longest Day.” Vandervoort, then a lieutenant colonel, parachuted into Nazi-held France with the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division in the invasion that led to the end of World War II in Europe. He broke his leg in the jump the morning of June 6, 1944. But he ordered a medic to lace up his boot tightly so he could keep on fighting as his troops turned back a German counterattack on the Allied forces landing on Normandy beaches. He used a cane to stay in combat until the beachhead was secure. On Sunday in Hilton Head, S.C., of the complications of a fall.