veterans gather in Normandy to mark 81st anniversary of D-Day landing
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.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth commemorated the anniversary of the D-Day landings, in which US soldiers played a major role, with veterans at the American Cemetery overlooking the shore in the village of Colleville-sur-Mer.
On 6 June 1944, the D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied France represented the largest-ever armada of ships, troops, planes and vehicles to breach Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's defences 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, honour and sacrifice of the Allied forces on D-Day will always resonate with the US Armed Forces and our Allies and partners across Europe,' said Lt Gen Jason T Hinds, deputy commander of US Air Forces in Europe – Air Forces Africa. 'So let us remember those who flew and fell."
"Let us honour 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 160,000 troops landing in Normandy on D-Day, 73,000 were from the US and 83,000 from the UK and Canada. Forces from several other countries took part in the fighting, including French troops under General 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.
A jury in Malta found two men guilty on Friday of complicity in the murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, after a six-week-long trial covering two homicides ended late on Thursday.
Jamie Vella and Robert Agius were found guilty of supplying the bomb that killed her.
Caruana Galizia was murdered on 16 October 2017 by a car bomb that was detonated while she was driving near her home.
In her career, she had written extensively about suspected corruption in political and business circles in Malta, and her murder shocked Europe and triggered angry protests in the Mediterranean island country.
Caruana Galizia's investigative reports had targeted people in then-Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's inner circle whom she accused of having offshore companies in tax havens disclosed in the Panama Papers leak.
She also targeted the opposition and at the time of her death was facing more than 40 libel suits.
The Caruana Galizia family said in a statement that Thursday's verdict brings them a step closer to justice.
"Yet, eight years after Daphne's brutal assassination, the institutional failures that enabled her murder remain unaddressed and unreformed," the family added.
Vella and Robert Agius, together with two other men – George Degiorgio and Adrian Agius – also faced charges related to the separate murder of a lawyer, Carmel Chircop, who was shot and killed in 2015.
Vella, Degiorgio and Adrian Agius were found guilty of charges tied to the murder, while Robert Agius was found not guilty.
The judge will decide on sentencing at a later date.
George Degiorgio and his brother Alfred Degiorgio both pleaded guilty in 2022 to carrying out the murder of Caruana Galizia and were each sentenced to 40 years in prison.
A third man, Vincent Muscat, pleaded guilty in 2021 for his role in the Caruana Galizia murder and was sentenced to 15 years.
He testified in the recent jury trial after being granted a presidential pardon for his role in the Chircop murder on the condition that he tell the whole truth.
Yorgen Fenech, a prominent Maltese businessman, is currently out of jail on bail awaiting trial on charges of alleged complicity in Caruana Galizia's murder.
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