Thousands mark 70 years since D-Day invasion

Ceremonies to commemorate the 70th anniversary of D-Day are drawing thousands of visitors to the cemeteries, beaches and stone-walled villages of Normandy, including some of the few survivors of the largest sea-borne invasion ever mounted.

World leaders and dignitaries, including President Barack Obama and Queen Elizabeth will gather to honour the more than 150,000 American, British, Canadian and other Allied D-Day veterans who risked and gave their lives to defeat Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich.

For many visitors, the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial with its 9,387 white marble tombstones on a bluff overlooking the site of the battle’s bloodiest fighting at Omaha Beach is the emotional centrepiece of pilgrimages to honour the tens of thousands of men killed on D-Day and the months of fighting afterward.