PICTURES: Veterans Gather in Normandy, France to Commemorate 1944 D-Day Landings

Veterans who were among those soldiers who stormed the Normandy beaches during the D-Day landings are meeting to commemorate and remember the battle, the liberation of Western Europe, and their fallen comrades. Former troops from the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada joined others from around the world including the former British Empire, France, and Poles as they have done every year to remember the opening battle of the European campaign fought between 1944 and 1945. Commemorations began Tuesday, the day before the battle’s anniversary, with ceremonies at the Pegasus Bridge museum and military graveyards in Normandy, Nothern France. Over 300,000 Allied troops in front line and support roles launched the counter-invasion of France with a combined sea, land, and air assault on June 6th, 1944. While the majority of soldiers landed on the Normandy bneaches, special forces troops including British paratroopers made precision landings behind enemy lines at locations including the Bascule bridge over the Caen canal, a location which came to be known as Pegasus Bridge. The operation prevented German armour being rushed to the front to repel the landings and remain one of the most imagination-capturing battles of the war. Oliver JJ Lane is the editor