With silent remembrance and respect, world leaders have honoured the fallen and the bravery of all Allied troops who sloshed through bloodied water to the beaches of Normandy 75 years ago on D-Day.
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French President Emmanuel Macron and President Donald Trump praised the soldiers, sailors and airmen, the survivors and those who lost their lives, in speeches on Thursday that credited the June 6, 1944, surprise air and sea operation that brought tens of thousands of men to Normandy.
"You are the pride of our nation, you are the glory of our republic, and we thank you from the bottom of our heart," Mr Trump said.
Mr Macron praised their courage, generosity and strength of spirit that made them press on "to help men and women they didn't know, to liberate a land most hadn't seen before, for no other cause but freedom, democracy."
D-Day was the largest air and sea invasion in history, involving around 160,000 troops on that day itself and many more in the ensuing Battle of Normandy. Of those 73,000 were from the United States, while 83,000 were from Britain and Canada and 3000 were from Australia.
Up to 12,000 people gathered hours later at the ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery, where Macron and Trump spoke. US veterans, their numbers fast diminishing as years pass, were the guests of honour.
Britain's Prince Charles, his wife, Camilla, and Prime Minister Theresa May attended a remembrance service at the medieval cathedral in Bayeux, the first Normandy town liberated by Allied troops after D-Day.
"If one day can be said to have determined the fate of generations to come, in France, in Britain, in Europe and the world, that day was the 6th of June, 1944," May said.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hailed those who sacrificed their lives on the Normandy beaches for future generations, "for you and me."
Speaking at Juno Beach where 14,000 Canadians landed, Trudeau said they "took a gamble the world had never seen before."
A group of five Americans parachuted into Normandy on Wednesday as part of a commemorative jump and showed up on the beach Thursday morning still wearing their jumpsuits, all World War II-era uniforms, and carrying an American flag.
"I have all kinds of friends buried," said 98-year-old William Tymchuk, who served with the 4th Canadian Armored Division during some of the deadliest fighting after the Normandy landings.
"They were young. They got killed. They couldn't come home," he added.
Then Tymchuk teared up.
"Sorry," he said.
"They couldn't even know what life is all about."
The D-Day invasion was a defining moment of military strategy confounded by unpredictable weather and human chaos in which soldiers from the US, Britain, Canada, Australia and other Allied nations applied relentless bravery to carve out a beachhead on ground that Nazi Germany had occupied for four years.
The Battle of Normandy, codenamed Operation Overlord, hastened Germany's defeat less than a year later.
Still, that single day cost the lives of 4414 Allied troops, 2501 of them Americans and 18 Australians.
Australian Associated Press
