(Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
As the sun rose Thursday over the Normandy coastline where thousands of men bled and died 75 years ago, a fast-diminishing number of World War II veterans remembered D-Day and hoped the world never forgets the sacrifices made to dismantle Nazi tyranny. Hundreds of people, civilians and military alike, hailing from around the world, gathered at the water’s edge, awash in emotion. Leaders from the United States, Britain, Canada, France — and then-foe and now-ally Germany lauded the troops who stormed the fortified Normandy beaches to help turn the tide of the war and give birth to a new Europe, since at peace. French President Emmanuel Macron and President Donald Trump looked out over Omaha Beach, the scene of the bloodiest fighting, from the cemetery with grave markers for over 9,000 Americans, servicemen who established a blood bond between the U.S. and its trans-Atlantic allies.