Remembrance ceremonies are being held from Washington to France on the 72nd anniversary of the epochal D-Day invasion of Normandy that helped the Allies defeat Hitler.
Friends of the World War II Memorial commemorated D-Day with a wreath-laying ceremony Monday morning in Washington, D.C. Veterans placed wreaths at the memorial's Atlantic Arch.
Across the ocean, small ceremonies and moments of remembrance are taking place along the wide beaches and cliffs where thousands of U.S., British, Canadian and French troops landed as dawn was breaking June 6, 1944.
It was a pivotal moment in World War II.
Henry Breton of Augusta, Maine, was among the shrinking number of survivors of the landings to come for Monday's anniversary.
Speaking from the American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, 91-year-old Breton recalled the fierce German counterattack and ensuing violence and valor he experienced at the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium.
"It's all worth it," he said. "It brings back so many memories."
