Today, June 6, 2024, marks the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings along the Normandy coast during World War II.
US President Joe Biden was among 20 heads of state in Normandy on Thursday at the ceremony at Omaha Beach, where US forces suffered substantial losses.
“What the allies did here 80 years ago, far surpassed anything we could have done on our own,” Biden said in remarks Thursday. “Together, we won the war.”
“The men who fought here became heroes — given an audacious mission, knowing the probability of dying was real,” he said. “But they did it anyway, knowing without a doubt there are things worth fighting and dying for. Freedom, worth it. Democracy worth it. America worth it. Then, now and always.”
The US president and other world leaders linked Ukraine’s fight against a Russian invasion to the D-Day operation, warning that “democracy is not guaranteed.”
Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were together at the ceremony.
Britain’s King Charles III and Queen Camilla were also present at the ceremony.
The D-Day operation brought together the land, air, and sea forces of the allied armies in what became known as the largest amphibious invasion in military history. The statistics of D-Day, codenamed Operation Overlord, are staggering. The Allies used over 5,000 ships and landing craft to land more than 150,000 troops on five beaches in Normandy.
Early on June 6, Allied airborne forces parachuted into drop zones across northern France. Ground troops then landed across five assault beaches – Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. By the end of the day, the Allies had established a foothold along the coast and could begin their advance into France.
As AP notes, among the Allied troops that landed in Normandy that day, 73,000 were from the United States and 83,000 from Britain and Canada. Forces from several other countries were also involved, including French troops fighting with Gen. Charles de Gaulle.
The Allies faced around 50,000 German forces.
More than 2 million Allied soldiers, sailors, pilots, medics and other people from a dozen countries were involved in the overall Operation Overlord.
The landings marked the start of a long and costly campaign in north-west Europe, which ultimately convinced the German high command that defeat was inevitable.
A total of 4,414 Allied troops were killed on D-Day itself, including 2,501 Americans. More than 5,000 were wounded.
In the ensuing Battle of Normandy, 73,000 Allied forces were killed and 153,000 wounded. The battle — and especially Allied bombings of French villages and cities — killed around 20,000 French civilians.
The exact German casualties aren’t known, but historians estimate between 4,000 and 9,000 men were killed, wounded or missing during the D-Day invasion alone. About 22,000 German soldiers are among the many buried around Normandy.
Biden drew a comparison between the evil that US soldiers were called up to fight in the 1940s and the current attempt by President Vladimir Putin’s Russia to wipe Ukraine off the map and extinguish its democracy.
“We cannot let that happen. To surrender to bullies, to bow down to dictators is simply unthinkable. Were we to do that, it means we’d be forgetting what happened here on these hallowed beaches. Make no mistake: We will not bow down, we will not forget,” he said.
Those who served in Normandy, Biden said, “all understood our democracy is only as strong as we make it all together. They knew, beyond any doubt, there are things that are worth fighting and dying for. Freedom is worth it, democracy is worth it, America’s worth it, the world is worth it – then, now and always.”
Macron used the international ceremony to award the Legion of Honor, France’s highest military or civilian distinction, to three more American veterans: Joseph Miller, Richard Calvin Rung and Arlester Brown
Earlier in the day, Macron awarded the Legion of Honor to Christian Lamb, a 104-year-old British woman credited with having made the maps for the D-Day landing, and 11 other American veterans.
Russian leaders or top officials have also attended the commemorations, at least since the end of the Cold War, in honor of the Soviet Union’s staggering losses fighting the Nazis. But Putin is now a pariah and was not invited.
No Russian official representing Putin’s government has been invited by the Elysee Palace due to the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine, now in its third year. Representatives of the anti-Kremlin opposition and civil society were also not expected to be present.