Trump honors D-Day soldiers on 75th anniversary

President Trump marked the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion in Normandy at a ceremony at the grave site of more than 9,380 American service members who were killed in the World War II landings and the operations that followed.

“To the men that sit behind me and to the boys that rest in the field before me, your example will never grow old,” Trump said, with an audience of veterans behind him. “Your legend will never die.”

Trump and the first lady emerged from the president’s military helicopter just before 11 a.m., their arrival shown on two screens flanking the large stage.

President Emmanuel Macron of France and Trump greeted the more than 60 aging World War II veterans in attendance as they arrived onstage. Many were bundled with blankets, and at least one American veteran called out to Trump: “Hey, you’re our president, too. Come on up this way.”

At the ceremony, Trump shared stories of some of the veterans and families onstage by name and told of their connections to D-Day, as the crowd rose in applause for each of those honored.

Macron, speaking at the American cemetery, praised those who lost their lives on the beaches of Normandy for their sacrifice and thanked the veterans in attendance, while also making pointed reference to historic alliance between the two nations.

France will never forget the sacrifice of the Allied troops who liberated it from Nazi Germany, President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday, the 75th anniversary of the D-Day operation that helped bring World War Two to an end.

“We know what we owe to you, our veterans: our freedom. On behalf of my country, I want to say ‘thank you’,” Macron told several dozen American D-Day combatants at a U.S. war cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach, one of five landing spots in Normandy.

“France will never forget.”

Macron awarded the Legion d’honneur, France’s highest award for merit, to five U.S. veterans and embraced each man warmly.

The Normandy landings were months in the planning and were kept secret from Hitler and his forces 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.