The 65th Anniversary of D-Day on the Normandy BeachesJune 5th, 2009Saturday, June 6th, marks the 65th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy. On D-Day, June 6, 1944, Allied troops departed England on planes and ships, made the trip across the English Channel and attacked the beaches of Normandy in an attempt to break through Hitler’s “Atlantic Wall” and break his grip on Europe. Some 215,000 Allied soldiers, and roughly as many Germans, were killed or wounded during D-Day and the ensuing nearly three months it took to secure the Allied capture of Normandy. Commemoration events, from re-enactments to school concerts, were being held in seaside towns and along the five landing beaches that stretch across 50 miles (80 kilometres) of Normandy coastline. The big event is Saturday, when Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the Canadian and British prime ministers and Prince Charles gather for a ceremony amid the rows of white crosses and Stars of David at the American cemetery, which is U.S. territory. (AP)
American
Soldiers equipped with full pack and extra allotments of ammunition, march
down an English street to their invasion craft for embarkation on June 6,
1944. (AP Photo)
Supreme
Commander Dwight Eisenhower gives the order of the day “Full victory –
Nothing else” to paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division at the
Royal Air Force base in Greenham Common, England, three hours before the
men board their planes to participate in the first assault wave of the
invasion of the continent of Europe, June 5, 1944. (AP Photo)
Lieutenant
Harrie W. James, USNR, of New York, N.Y., briefs officers and men who
participated in landing operations during the invasion of Southern France
June 5, 1944 on the day before D-Day. (AP Photo)
Sight of a low-flying Allied plane sends Nazi soldiers rushing for shelter on a beach in France, before D-Day June 1944. Their fears were premature; the fliers were taking photos of German coastal barriers in preparation for the invasion, which took place June 6. (AP Photo)
Airborne troops prepare for the descent on Europe of D-Day invasion June 6, 1944. (AP Photo)
American
paratroopers, heavily armed, sit inside a military plane as they soar over
the English Channel en route to the Normandy French coast for the Allied
D-Day invasion of the German stronghold during World War II, June 6, 1944.
(AP Photo)
U.S.
paratroopers fix their static lines before a jump before dawn over
Normandy on D-Day June 6, 1944, in France. The decision to launch the
airborne attack in darkness instead of waiting for first light was
probably one of the few Allied missteps on June 6, and there was much to
criticize both in the training and equipment given to paratroopers and
glider-borne troops of the 82nd and 101st airborne divisions. Improvements
were called for after the invasion; the hard-won knowledge would be used
to advantage later. (AP Photo/Army Signal Corps)
U.S. serviceman
attend a Protestant service aboard a landing craft before the D-Day
invasion on the coast of France, June 5, 1944. (AP Photo/Pete Carroll)
U.S.
reinforcements wade through the surf from a landing craft in the days
following D-Day and the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France at
Normandy in June 1944 during World War II. (AP Photo/Bert Brandt)
After landing at
the shore, these British troops wait for the signal to move forward,
during the initial Allied landing operations in Normandy, France, June 6,
1944. (AP Photo)
Barrage balloons
are used for aerial protection as part of the invasion fleet, carrying men
and supplies as they move across the channel towards the French invasion
coast. .(AP Photo /Peter Carroll )
This June 6,
1944 photo released by Nathan Kline, shows a B-26 Marauder flying toward
France during the D-Day invasion. (AP Photo/ Courtesy of Nathan Kline)
Wounded British
troops from the South Lancashire and Middlesex regiments are being helped
ashore at Sword Beach, June 6, 1944, during the D-Day invasion of German
occupied France during World War II. (AP Photo)
American
soldiers and supplies arrive on the shore of the French coast of
German-occupied Normandy during the Allied D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944
in World War II. (AP Photo)
Carrying full
equipment, American assault troops move onto a beachhead code-named Omaha
Beach, on the northern coast of France on June 6, 1944, during the Allied
invasion of the Normandy coast. (AP Photo)
Sitting in the cover of their foxholes, American soldiers of the Allied Expeditionary Force secure a beachhead during initial landing operations at Normandy, France, June 6, 1944. In the background amphibious tanks and other equipment crowd the beach, while landing craft bring more troops and material ashore. (AP Photo/Weston Hayes)
Canadian troops
in landing crafts approach a stretch of coastline code-named Juno Beach,
near Bernieres-sur-mer, as the Allied Normandy invasion gets under way, on
June 6, 1944. (AP Photo)
Members of an
American landing unit help their exhausted comrades ashore during the
Normandy invasion, June 6, 1944. The men reached the zone code-named Utah
Beach, near Sainte Mere Eglise, on a life raft after their landing craft
was hit and sunk by German coastal defences. (AP Photo)
A U.S. Coast
Guard LCI, heavily listing to port, moves alongside a transport ship to
evacuate her troops, during the initial Normandy landing operations in
France, on June 6, 1944. Moments later the craft will capsize and sink.
Note that helmeted infantrymen, with full packs, are all standing to
starboard side of the ship. (AP Photo)
Men and assault vehicles storm the Normandy Beach of France, as allied landing craft arrive at their destination on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Note men coming ashore in surf and vehicles starting inland. (AP Photo)
Out of the open
bow doors of a Landing Craft, American troops and jeeps go ashore on the
beach of the Normandy coast of France, June 6, 1944. (AP Photo)
Lt. William V.
Patten, centre of group, wearing overseas cap, briefs his crew at a port
in England before the invasion of France began June 6, 1944. Patten and
his ship are veterans of Tunisia, Salerno, Anzio and Licata. (AP Photo)
Under the cover
of naval shell fire, American infantrymen wade ashore from their landing
craft during the initial Normandy landing operations in France, June 6,
1944. (AP Photo/Peter Carroll)
A U.S. Coast
Guard landing barge, tightly packed with helmeted soldiers, approaches the
shore at Normandy, France, during initial Allied landing operations, June
6, 1944. These barges ride back and forth across the English Channel,
bringing wave after wave of reinforcement troops to the Allied beachheads.
(AP Photo)
Under heavy German machine gun fire, American infantrymen wade ashore off the ramp of a Coast Guard landing craft on June 8, 1944, during the invasion of the French coast of Normandy in World War II. (AP Photo
US assault
troops approach Utah Beach in a barge, 06 June 1944 as Allied forces storm
the Normand beaches on D-Day. D-Day, is still one of the world’s most
gut-wrenching and consequential battles, as the Allied landing in Normandy
led to the liberation of France which marked the turning point in the
Western theatre of World War II. AFP PHOTO
A tribute to an
unknown American soldier, who lost his life fighting in the landing
operations of the Allied Forces, marks the sand of Normandy’s shore, in
June 1944. (AP Photo)
U.S. Army medical personnel administer a plasma transfusion to a wounded comrade, who survived when his landing craft went down off the coast of Normandy, France, in the early days of the Allied landing operations in June 1944. (AP Photo)
German prisoners
of war are led away by Allied forces from Utah Beach, on June 6, 1944,
during landing operations at the Normandy coast, France. (AP Photo)
U.S doughboys
are brought ashore on the Northern Coast of France following the D-Day
invasion of Normandy in World War II on June 13, 1944. The exhausted
soldiers on the rubber life raft are being pulled by a group of comrades.
(AP Photo/U.S. Army Signal Corps)
Allied forces
camp out in fox holes, caves and tents on this hillside overlooking the
beach at Normandy, France, during the D-Day invasion in World War II. (AP
Photo/Bede Irvin)
One year after the D-Day landings in Normandy, a lone U.S. soldier guards a knocked out German gun position on “Utah” Beach, France, May 28, 1945. (AP Photo/Peter J. Carroll)
One year after
the D-Day landings in Normandy, German prisoners landscape the area around
a former German pill box at Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, France, near
“Omaha” Beach, May 28, 1945. The pill box, with a knocked out gun
still visible, will be made into a monument dedicated to U.S. assault
forces. (AP Photo/Peter J. Carroll)
One year after
the D-Day landings in Normandy, German prisoners landscape the first U.S.
cemetery at Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, France, near “Omaha” Beach, May 28,
1945. (AP Photo/Peter J. Carroll)
Gen. Dwight
Eisenhower stands on the cliff overlooking Omaha Beach on the Normandy
coast in France as he makes an anniversary visit to the scene of the 1945
D-Day landing of the Allied troops, June 9, 1951. (AP Photo)
Pointe du Hoc.
Omaha Beach, pocked by D-Day bombardment. On June 6th. 1944, five Normandy
beaches were stormed by British, Canadian and American troops to free
Europe from the German occupation. Ever since, each year on June 6th,
Normandy coast lures veterans and pilgrims. (Ph: Alexandra BOULAT)
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