World leaders and officials take part in a ceremony on Juno Beach in Courseulles-sur-Mer, Normandy, yesterday. Photo / AP
World leaders and officials take part in a ceremony on Juno Beach in Courseulles-sur-Mer, Normandy, yesterday. Photo / AP
Standing on the windswept beaches and bluffs of Normandy, France, a dwindling number of ageing veterans of history's greatest air and sea invasion received the thanks and praise of a world transformed by their sacrifice.
The mission now, they said, was to honour the dead and keep their memory alive,75 years after the D-Day operation that portended the end of World War II.
"We know we don't have much time left, so I tell my story so people know it was because of that generation, because of those guys in this cemetery," said 99-year-old Steve Melnikoff of Maryland, standing at Colleville-Sur-Mer, where thousands of Americans are buried.
"All these generals with all this brass that don't mean nothing," he said. "These guys in the cemetery, they are the heroes."
The anniversary was marked with eloquent speeches, profound silences and passionate pleas for an end to bloodshed.
French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump praised the soldiers, sailors and airmen who took part in the invasion, codenamed Operation Overlord, saying it was the turning point that ended Nazi tyranny and ensured peace for Europe. "You are the pride of our nation, you are the glory of our republic, and we thank you from the bottom of our heart," Trump said of those who took part in what he called the ultimate fight of good against evil in World War II.
Macron saluted the courage, generosity and strength of spirit that made them press on "to help men and women they didn't know, to liberate a land most hadn't seen before, for no other cause but freedom, democracy".
About 160,000 troops took part in D-Day, and many more fought in the ensuing Battle of Normandy. Of those 73,000 were from the US, and 83,000 were from Britain and Canada.
