COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER (FRANCE): France will never forget the sacrifice of the Allied troops who liberated it from Nazi Germany. President Emmanuel Macron said so on Thursday, the 75th anniversary of the D-Day operation that brought the World War-II to an end.

U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May joined President Macron at separate ceremonies along the 80km (50 mile) stretch of Normandy coastline. This is the same coastline where more than 150,000 soldiers landed on June 6, 1944, under a hail of German fire.

“We know what we owe to you, our veterans: our freedom. On behalf of my country, I want to say ‘thank you’,” Macron told several dozen American D-Day combatants at a U.S. war cemetery. Macron awarded the Legion d’honneur, France’s highest award for merit, to five U.S. veterans.

The Normandy landings were months in the planning and were kept secret from Hitler and his forces. Thousands of Allied paratroopers jumped behind Germany’s coastal defenses taking advantage of the cover of darkness. Warships pounded German positions supported by hundreds of landing craft that disgorged the infantry troops before Sun began to blaze.

“You are among the very greatest Americans who will ever live,” Trump paid his tributes to the surviving veterans. “You are the pride of our nation, you are the glory of our republic and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.” “These men moved through the fires of hell,” he praised the veterans. “They came here and saved freedom, and then they went home and showed us all what freedom is about.” (Agencies)