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On June 6, 1944, some 150,000 U.S., British and Canadian troops stormed an 80-kilometre stretch of beaches along the French channel coast to attack hundreds of Nazi troops in concrete fortified gun positions.
Nineteen world leaders, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, have gathered in Normandy for Friday's ceremony to honour the troops and civilians who died on D-Day and during subsequent battles.
At least 4,400 Allied troops, including 359 Canadians, died the first day. Canada's D-Day tribute to the fallen Canadians was unveiled Thursday at the Juno Beach Centre. It is comprised of 359 maple tribute markers.
Harper said in a written statement that it was an honour and privilege to be in France on the anniversary of D-Day.
"It is difficult to understand the courage it took to advance through minefields and barbed wire under fire from mortars and machine-guns in order to punch through Hitler’s Atlantic Wall; and yet that is exactly what many Canadians did," Harper said.
"It is a source of enormous national pride that Canadians played such a pivotal role in ensuring the success of the D-Day landings, one of the greatest battles of the Second World War and a turning point in the world’s history."
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/d-day-7...ideo-1.2666978
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
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