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D-Day observed 60 years after landing

Willie Hartley, a British veteran of World War II, wipes away a tear during a ceremony in Caen, France, Friday. PHOTO: REUTERS

World leaders, veterans and tourists were preparing yesterday to pay homage to the tens of thousands of Allied troops who took part in the D-Day landings 60 years ago, liberating France and speeding the defeat of Nazi Germany.

On June 6, 1944 more than 135,000 Allied forces and 20,000 vehicles poured from boats onto the beaches of northwestern France to invade Nazi-occupied France in the biggest seaborne invasion of all time.

Operation Overlord, as it was dubbed, had been years in the planning and was meticulous and imaginative in its scope and detail.

It marked the long-awaited opening of a second front in Europe to relieve pressure on the hard-pressed Russians and build on Allied successes in North Africa and the Middle East fighting the forces of Adolf Hitler.

After three airborne divisions parachuted overnight behind German lines, at daybreak an armada of 4,300 ships bombarded the coast and unleashed the landing-craft against the beaches dubbed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.

Except at Omaha beach -- where the Americans suffered heavy casualties from German artillery -- the landings were an unqualified success, leading to the fall of Normandy in July and then the Allied sweep through northern France into Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.

Today a series of national and international services of remembrance is to be held at cemeteries, memorials and battle sites along the 100km stretch of coast in northwestern France.

Villages along the windswept coastline have been proudly preparing for the event, with French, British, Canadian and American flags fluttering from almost every house for the ceremonies set to mark the last major gathering of D-Day veterans.

Some towns proudly erected a sign in English saying: "Welcome to our Liberators." Flowers decorated the streets of Norman towns, many of which were largely destroyed in the onslaught.

French President Jacques Chirac will be joined by some 20 heads of state or government including US President George W. Bush, under fire in many European countries for the US policy in Iraq.

However the tone of the ceremonies will be one of reconciliation.

"Thank you to those who liberated France and Europe," said French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin on a visit to the city of Poitiers on Friday.

Bush, whose US-led invasion of Iraq last year created a deep rift with France, is also using the commemorations to rebuild transatlantic bridges.

In a letter sent to the newspaper Ouest France, Bush said "countries that shared the same values," like France and the US, were "capable of getting together to accomplish what pessimists consider impossible."

But he added "something more than words and sentiments are needed if peace is to be guaranteed," he wrote.

"Today the armies of our two countries are deployed throughout the world to defend freedom for all those who need our help," he wrote in the signed letter.

According to a top aide, Bush will not use his address today to draw comparisons between the Normandy landings and the controversial Iraq war but instead to honor those who died 60 years ago.

An enormous security operation has been launched, with some 19,000 French soldiers, gendarmes and police mobilized.
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