The 65th Anniversary of D-Day on the Normandy Beaches
06.06.2009 15:40 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Veterans of the World War II take part in the
ceremonies marking the 65th anniversary of the invasion 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 80 kilometers of Normandy coastline. The big event
is Saturday, when Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the
Canadian and British prime ministers Gordon Brown and Steven Harper
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.
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.
U.S. President Barack Obama arrives in Paris on Saturday evening,
after his short visit to Germany, where he and the German chancellor
Angela Merkel visited museum located at the place of the former
concentration camp Bukhenvald.
Barack Obama will have talks on Saturday evening with president of
France Nicolas Sakozy in Caen, the two will then attend the
anniversary event at the American cemetery, next to one of the D-Day
landing sites dubbed Omaha beach, where thousands of white stone
crosses mark the graves of the U.S. war dead.