Transatlantic alliance has been tested by US president’s exchanges with some European leaders

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

World leaders including Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron will attend ceremonies on Thursday on the beaches of Normandy, where 75 years ago Allied troops landed to push Nazi forces out of France.

At a time of increasing international discord, the leaders will seek to show that transatlantic harmony remains intact as they meet for a second day to salute the heroism of the soldiers who surged onto the sands on 6 June 1944.

The Atlantic alliance has been tested by Trump’s prickly relations with Europe, as the two sides feud on issues ranging from Iran and Russia to global trade and climate change.

On an occasion that will mix politics with poignant historical remembrance, Macron will first meet Theresa May to launch the construction of a British memorial at Ver-sur-Mer.

Trump visit avoids major pitfalls despite usual blunders Read more

Macron and Trump will then hold private talks followed by a working lunch after a ceremony at the US military cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer.

The site overlooking Omaha beach holds 9,400 graves – representing 40% of the American forces killed during the weeks of fighting that followed the D-day landings.

Play Video 1:59 May, Trump and Macron speak at D-day 75th anniversary ceremony – video highlights

Both leaders will give speeches, while the French president will also bestow the Legion d’Honneur, France’s highest honour, on five American veterans.

D-day is seen by many as one of the great symbols of transatlantic cooperation, as young American servicemen sacrificed their lives in the struggle to end the Third Reich’s grip on Europe.

Tens of thousands of French and foreign visitors have converged on the Normandy coast for this year’s commemorations to honour the dwindling number of firsthand witnesses to the fighting.

Quick guide What happened on D-day? Show Hide What was D-day? D-day was an invasion of France by allied forces. It was codenamed Operation Neptune, and it aimed to push Nazi Germany out of occupied France. Five beaches in Normandy, codenamed Omaha, Utah, Juno, Sword and Gold, were the main targets for landing a large number of troops by sea. At 10pm on 5 June 1944, troops began departing from British shores to head across the Channel. Five assault groups set sail under darkness in an armada of about 7,000 vessels. Just after midnight on 6 June, aerial bombardment of enemy positions on the Normandy coast began. Special operations troops were also parachuted into France. US troops landed on Omaha and Utah beaches at about 6:30am. About an hour later Canadian forces landed at Juno, and British troops landed at Gold and Sword. Soldiers had to get off their boats, wade through the water, and seize control of the beach, all the while under heavy and sustained fire from German defensive positions. How was the plan kept secret? Despite involving a large number of troops, keeping D-day secret was vital to the success of the operation. A disinformation campaign had led the Germans to believe that Operation Fortitude was the main plan for the allies to invade the continent, via a two-pronged attack involving Norway and Calais. Even once the D-day landings had begun, German commanders were convinced they were just a diversionary tactic before the real invasion. Why is it called D-day? The D in D-day actually has no particular significance to Operation Neptune. It was common practice in the military to make plans that used the term, where the D stands for the day when operations commenced. Military planners also set H-hour, the time at which a plan was to begin. What happened next? By the end of the day, the allies had disembarked more than 135,000 men and 10,000 vehicles on to the beaches, and established bridgeheads of varying depths along the Normandy coastline. This came at the cost of 4,400 allied troops being killed, with thousands more injured or missing. There were also heavy casualties among German troops and French civilians. By 19 August, the allied forces had pushed down far enough to begin the battle to liberate Paris. German troops surrendered the French capital on 25 August 1944, two and a half months after D-day. Martin Belam

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau will attend a ceremony at Juno beach, where Canadian forces were in charge of the assault.

Trump arrives in France from a three-day state visit to Britain, where he attended a ceremony in Portsmouth to mark D-day alongside the Queen and more than a dozen other world leaders.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest US flags and roses are seen at Omaha beach on Wednesday. Photograph: Sébastien Nogier/EPA

In a joint proclamation, the 16 nations present at Portsmouth affirmed their shared responsibility to ensure that the horrors of the second world war were never repeated. They reaffirmed their commitment to “shared values” and vowed to work together to defend freedoms “whenever they are threatened”.

German chancellor Angela Merkel, who attended the Portsmouth ceremony, will not be present in Normandy.

President Vladimir Putin, who was invited in 2004 on the 60th anniversary of the invasion, did not receive an invitation to either ceremony, a snub indicative of the west’s strained relations with Russia.

D-day veterans in their 90s parachute into Normandy once more Read more

Russia’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday the Allied invasion on D-day did not determine the course of the second world war and its importance should not be exaggerated. Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told journalists it was the efforts of the Soviet Union, which entered the war in 1941, that secured victory.

On 6 June 1944, now known as the “longest day”, 156,000 troops landed on the beaches chosen for the D-day invasion, most of them American, British and Canadian.

It remains the largest amphibious assault in history, claiming the lives of an estimated 4,400 troops in the first day alone.

“All these guys are my heroes, they’re the guys who trained the guys who trained me,” Terry Murphy, who spent 21 years as a US Army paratrooper, told AFP on Wednesday at a ceremony in Sannerville to honour Britain’s paratroopers. “They’re really the greatest generation,” he said.

Every major D-day anniversary sees fewer and fewer surviving veterans. But at the ceremony in Portsmouth, the Queen said her wartime generation had proved “resilient”, noting that some had thought the 60th anniversary ceremony might be their last.