Leaders including Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron commemorated the 75th Anniversary of the D-Day landings.
The ceremony in the North of France commemorated the WWII D-Day landings during which 156,000 allied troops landed in Normandy. The invasion allowed allies to liberate parts of France and the Nazis were defeated less than a year later.
The ceremony was also attended by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. The day will also see veteran’s parades in Arromanches and Portsmouth, and an event at the US war cemetery in Coleville-sur-Mer.
Prime Minister Theresa May said: “If one day can be said to have determined the fate of generations to come – in France, in Britain, in Europe and the world – that day was the 6th June 1944. More than 156,000 men landed on D-Day – of which 83,000 were from Britain and the Commonwealth.”
“Over a quarter million more supported operations from air and sea – while the French Resistance carried out extraordinary acts of bravery behind enemy lines. Many were terribly wounded. And many more made the ultimate sacrifice that day and in the fierce fighting that followed, as together our allied nations sought to release Europe from the grip of fascism.”
Veterans Harry Read, 95, and John Hutton, 94, recreated parachuting onto the beach after first doing so 75 years ago. May and Macron thanked veterans and a piper played Mulberry Harbour at 06:26, the exact moment soldiers came ashore.
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