OMAHA BEACH, June 6
The leaders of France and Britain paid tribute to the sacrifice of D-Day veterans on Thursday, the 75th anniversary of the largest ever seaborne invasion that opened the way for western Europe’s liberation from Nazi Germany.
Inaugurating a memorial to the 22,000 soldiers under British command who were killed on June 6, 1944, and in the ensuing battle for Normandy, British Prime Minister Theresa May saluted the bravery of the soldiers, many of whom were still boys when they waded ashore under German fire.
“It’s almost impossible to grasp the raw courage it must have taken that day to leap from landing craft and into the surf despite the fury of battle,” May told a small gathering that included Macron and veterans, their uniforms laden with medals.
“These young men belonged to a very special generation ... whose incomparable spirit shaped our post-war world,” she said. “They laid down their lives so that we might have a better life and build a better world.”
The Normandy landings were months in the planning and kept secret from Nazi Germany despite a huge trans-Atlantic mobilisation of industry and manpower.
Under the cover of darkness, thousands of Allied paratroopers jumped behind Germany’s coastal defences. Then, as day broke, warships pounded German positions before hundreds of landing craft disgorged the infantry troops under a barrage of machine-gun fire and artillery.
Some veterans say the sea turned red with blood during the operation that would help turn the tide of World Two against Hitler.
The devastation wrought by two world wars in the first half of the 20th century fostered a decades-long era of cooperation between European capitals determined to protect their hard-fought peace, giving rise to what is now the European Union.
But even as Britain now tries sever its ties with the bloc, Macron said some ties between France and Britain were indestructible.
“Nothing will ever take away the links of spilled blood and shared values. The debates of the present in no way take away from the past.”
US President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended ceremonies along the stretch of coastline in northern France where more than 150,000 troops landed on five beaches, codenamed Gold, Juno, Sword, Utah and Omaha by the Allies.
Lines of white marble crosses on the clifftop above Omaha Beach today mark the resting place of more than 9,380 US soldiers who died during the military campaign.
“You are among the very greatest Americans who will ever live,” Trump said in his address, turning to the surviving veterans. “You are the pride of our nation, you are the glory of our republic and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.” — Reuters
Hugs, not macho handshakes as Trump shelves politics
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President Donald Trump briefly set aside politics and his testy relationship with France’s Emmanuel Macron on Thursday, heaping praise on US war veterans in a speech to mark the 75th D-Day anniversary and steering clear of issues that might rile Europe
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The two leaders embraced warmly as they arrived at a US war cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach, where 2,500 American troops were killed by German gunners and artillery on June 6, 1944, the first day of the Allied effort to drive the Nazis out of France
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While Trump laced his discourse with religious undertones and references to his nation’s rural and industrial hinterlands, key bastions of his support, he refrained from hurling barbs at his rivals, some of whom were in the audience
from The Tribune http://bit.ly/2Wt1vg7
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