World honors D-Day's fallen, 70 years on

Source: AP-Excite

By GREG KELLER and LORI HINNANT

COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France (AP) — Men who stormed Normandy's shore 70 years ago joined world leaders Friday in paying tribute to the 150,000 Allied troops who risked and lost their lives in the D-Day landings in Nazi-occupied France, in a day of international commemorations of history's biggest amphibious invasion.

They are honoring the troops and civilians who fell in mighty battles that helped bring Europe peace and unity — just as bloodshed in Ukraine is posing new challenges to European security and threatening a new East-West divide.

As the sun rose Friday over a gusty Omaha Beach, flags flew at half-staff. A U.S. military band played Taps, while D-Day veterans from the 29th Infantry Division and serving soldiers stood at attention at exactly 6:30 a.m., the moment on June 6, 1944, when Allied troops first waded ashore.

"Twenty-nine, let's go!" they shouted, then downed shots of Calvados, Normandy apple brandy.

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Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140606/d-day-commemorations-5096c18690.html

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A man stands on a jeep on the beach of Arromanches, western France, Thursday June 5, 2014. World leaders and veterans prepare to mark the 70th anniversary of the invasion this week in Normandy. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)