(6 Jun 2014) As the sun rose over a gusty Omaha Beach in France on Friday D-Day veterans from the United States 29th Infantry Division stood at attention alongside serving soldiers at 6:30 a.m., exactly the moment on June 6, 1944, when Allied troops first waded ashore.
90 year-old Don McCarthy from Maryland said it was a "very special moment of my life, I'm so filled with joy right now I can hardly control myself."
World leaders and dignitaries including President Barack Obama and Queen Elizabeth II are converging on Normandy to honour the more than 150-thousand American, British, Canadian and other Allied D-Day troops who risked and gave their lives to defeat Adolf Hitler's Third Reich.
The D-Day invasion was a turning point in World War II, cracking Hitler's western front as the Soviet troops made advances in the east.
Overall at least 4,400 Allied troops were killed the first day, and many thousands more in the ensuing three-month Battle of Normandy, which brought the Allies to Paris to liberate the French capital from Nazi occupation.

Find out more about AP Archive: aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: facebook.com/APArchives ​​
Instagram: instagram.com/APNews/

You can license this story through AP Archive: aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/1f6097d6ef0f11a2dab17816a5f59da8

• As the sun rose over Omaha Beach in France on Friday D-Day veterans from the US 29th Infantry Divisi ( Download)
• As the sun rose over Omaha Beach in France on Friday D-Day veterans from the US 29th Infantry Divisi ( Download)
• Nearly 70 years after the Allied Forces D-Day invasion France, surviving veterans of the 29th Infant ( Download)
• US veterans at Omaha, cemetery ( Download)
• As veterans of the 29th Infantry Division continue their tour of small Normandy towns they liberated ( Download)
• Memphis World War II veterans travel to France to commemorate D-Day ( Download)
• As the sun rose over Omaha Beach in France on Friday D-Day veterans from the US 29th Infantry Divisi ( Download)
• Bonaire man celebrating 75th anniversary of D-Day ( Download)
• A French government official has told 34 World War II veterans at the U.S. Military Academy that the ( Download)
• Olean veteran awarded Legion of Honor by France ( Download)
• As veterans of the 29th Infantry Division continue their tour of small Normandy towns they liberated ( Download)
• D Day Experience Trailer ( Download)
• As the sun rose over Omaha Beach in France on Friday D-Day veterans from the US 29th Infantry Divisi ( Download)
• On Hill 108 with Historian Steve West and 29th Infantry Veterans - June 7, 2009 ( Download)
• [29th ID] Veterans Virtues - Episode 1 ( Download)