D-Day veterans return to Normandy to mark 81st anniversary

COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France — Veterans gathered Friday in Normandy to mark the 81st anniversary of the D-Day landings — a pivotal moment of World War II that eventually led to the collapse of Adolf Hitler’s regime.

Along the coastline and near the D-Day landing beaches, tens of thousands of onlookers attended the commemorations, which included parachute jumps, flyovers, remembrance ceremonies, parades, and historical reenactments.

Many were there to cheer the ever-dwindling number of surviving veterans in their late 90s and older. All remembered the thousands who died.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth commemorated the anniversary of the D-Day landings, in which American soldiers played a leading role, with veterans at the American Cemetery overlooking the shore in the village of Colleville-sur-Mer.

The June 6, 1944, D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied France used the largest-ever armada of ships, troops, planes and vehicles to breach Hitler’s defenses in western Europe. A total of 4,414 Allied troops were killed on D-Day itself.

In the ensuing Battle of Normandy, 73,000 Allied forces were killed and 153,000 wounded. The battle — and especially Allied bombings of French villages and cities — killed around 20,000 French civilians between June and August 1944.

The exact German casualties are unknown, but historians estimate between 4,000 and 9,000 men were killed, wounded or missing during the D-Day invasion alone.

“The heroism, honor and sacrifice of the Allied forces on D-Day will always resonate with the U.S. Armed Forces and our Allies and partners across Europe,” said Lt. Gen. Jason T. Hinds, deputy commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe — Air Forces Africa. “So let us remember those who flew and fell.

“Let us honor those who survived and came home to build a better world. And let us ensure that their sacrifice was not in vain by meeting today’s challenges with the same resolve, the same clarity of purpose, and the same commitment to freedom.”

Nearly 160,000 Allied troops landed on D-Day.

Of those, 73,000 were from the United States and 83,000 from Britain and Canada. Forces from several other countries were also involved, including French troops fighting with Gen. Charles de Gaulle. The Allies faced around 50,000 German forces.

More than 2 million Allied soldiers, sailors, pilots, medics and other people from a dozen countries were involved in the overall Operation Overlord, the battle to wrest western France from Nazi control that started on D-Day.