Queen Elizabeth II and world leaders including U.S. President Donald Trump gathered Wednesday on the south coast of England to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings that turned the tide of World War II and helped liberate Europe from Nazi occupation.
Mixing history lesson, entertainment and solemn remembrance, the ceremony was a large-scale spectacle involving troops, dancers and martial bands, culminating in a military fly-past. But the stars of the show were the elderly veterans of that campaign who said they were surprised by all the attention: They were just doing their jobs.
"I was just a small part in a very big machine," said 99-year-old John Jenkins, a veteran from Portsmouth, who received a standing ovation as he addressed the event. "You never forget your comrades because we were all in it together," he said. "It is right that the courage and sacrifice of so many is being honored 75 years on. We must never forget."
Jenkins was among 300 WWII veterans, aged 91 to 101, who attended the ceremony in Portsmouth, the English port city from where many of the troops embarked for Normandy on June 5, 1944.
The 93-year-old queen, who served as an army mechanic during the war, noted that when she attended a 60th-anniversary commemoration 15 years ago, many thought it might be the last such event.
"But the wartime generation – my generation – is resilient," she said. "The heroism, courage and sacrifice of those who lost their lives will never be forgotten," the monarch said. "It is with humility and pleasure, on behalf of the entire country – indeed the whole free world – that I say to you all, thank you."
The event, which kicked off two days of D-Day anniversary observances, paid tribute to the troops who shaped history during the dangerous mission to reach beachheads and fight in German-occupied France.
D-Day saw more than 150,000 Allied troops land on the beaches of Normandy in northwest France on June 6, 1944, carried by 7,000 boats. The Battle of Normandy helped bring about Nazi Germany's defeat in May 1945.
Wednesday's ceremony brought together presidents, prime ministers and representatives of countries that fought alongside Britain in Normandy: The United States, Canada, Australia, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Luxembourg, Denmark, France, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Poland.
Trump read a prayer that President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered in a radio address June 6, 1944, extolling the "mighty endeavor" Allied troops were engaged in.
British Prime Minister Theresa May read a letter written by Capt. Norman Skinner of the Royal Army Service Corps to his wife, Gladys, on June 3, 1944, a few days before the invasion. He was killed the day after D-Day.
