FRANCE CELEBRATING 60TH D-DAY ANNIVERSARY

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PARIS, June 5 (RIA Novosti) - D-Day celebrations are to reach their climax on June 6, as France marks the 60th anniversary of the Allied landing in Normandy.

US and Australian veterans, who took part in operation Overlord, i.e. the opening of the Second Front in Europe, will be awarded in Paris in an impressive setting on June 5. (The Soviet-German front was referred to as the First Front). The relevant agreement on opening the Second Front was reached by Big Three leaders, namely, Joseph Stalin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Spencer Churchill, at their Teheran conference in 1943. It goes without saying that the Allied invasion of Normandy went down in history as a highly important WWII event. Operation Overlord's contribution to the war's subsequent outcome can be compared to the famous battle of Stalingrad. The Allies entered Paris already in August 1944.

Ceremonies involving Canadian, Belgian and Norwegian veterans will be held in north Normandy's towns that same day.

Apart from D-Day veterans, leaders of the anti-Hitler coalition's countries, as well as those of other countries, whose citizens helped open the Second Front, are to arrive in Normandy together with WWII veterans on June 6. This will become the main event. National ceremonies dealing with the 60th D-Day anniversary will be organized near Caen all day long.

The main international ceremony will be held in Arromanches on the English Channel coast. The main Allied beachhead was established there 60 years ago.

A French-German ceremony involving Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroeder is to take place at the Caen-based Memorial museum in the evening of June 6, highlighting the complete reconciliation of former adversaries, who have now become permanent partners and recognized EU leaders.

Quite possibly, the leaders of the world's major powers will negotiate in an informal setting during D-Day celebrations.

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