President Trump joined other world pioneers in Europe on Thursday to commemorate the 75th commemoration of the D-Day invasion, an amazing occasion that was to a great extent in shaping the outcome of World War II.
The ceremony occurred on the edge of Omaha Beach in Normandy where a thousands of American and Allied soldiers lost their lives raging the sustained shore to dislodge the Nazi forces dug in on the cliffs above the ocean in what was regarded as a suicide mission for many.
Trump, proceeding with the custom of his predecessors, showed up close by pioneers from Britain, Canada, France, and even Germany to pay tribute to the troops who reverse the tide of the war.
French President Emmanuel Macron talked before Trump, to the sound of wartime American songs and military music. He tended to the crowd in French, paying a heartfelt tribute to the American and Allied soldiers who helped liberate France.
“Today France has not forgotten to those who we owe our right to freedom,” Macron said.
Macron then switched to English, addressing the veterans in the audience: “We know what we owe to you veterans. Our freedom. On behalf of my nation, I just want to say, thank you.”
In a Twitter message early Thursday, President Trump seemed to be looking forward to the day’s events.
“Heading over to Normandy to celebrate some of the bravest that ever lived. We are eternally grateful!” the president wrote.
The message included a Defense Department video featuring remembrances of some veterans who participated in the D-Day invasion.
Prior, the president tweeted a passage from his D-Day remarks.
“They did not know if they would survive the hour,” the president wrote. “They did not know if they would grow old. But they knew that America had to prevail. Their cause was this Nation, and generations yet unborn.”
Remembrances will continue to take place throughout the day. Trump will deliver a speech later Thursday at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, where more than 9,000 American military dead are buried.
On Wednesday, Trump joined British Prime Minister Theresa May and around 300 veterans – ages 91 to 101 – on the southern shore of England where he read a prayer conveyed by President Franklin Roosevelt on D-Day.
Trump spent Wednesday night at his golf course on Ireland’s west coast, after meeting with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar at the VIP lounge at Shannon Airport.
D-Day was the largest invasion – by both air and sea – in history. On June 6, 1944, 160,000 Allied troops carried by 7,000 boats landed on the beaches code-named Omaha, Utah, Juno, Sword, and Gold.