80 years ago—a Landing Craft approaching Omaha Beach, Normandy, France, 6th June 1944.
There are many reasons to head to France in 2024—the Olympic Games in Paris, the Euro 2024 football competition or an Impressionist festival—but many will be heading to Normandy to commemorate the 160,000 Allied troops who landed on its beaches in World War II in the biggest military seaborne invasion in history.
The festival for the 80th anniversary of D-Day will take place from Pegasus Bridge to Sainte-Mère-Eglise—it's a stretch of almost 100 km of coastline (about 60 miles) that takes in the towns of Ouistreham and Arromanches-les-Bains (the latter was where Allied forces built Winston Harbor, to bring in supplies).
From 1-16 June 2024, there will be commemoration ceremonies as well as festivities (parades, picnics, reenactments and fireworks) along the same stretch of coastline, including across all five landing areas for the Allied troops in 1944—Utah Beach, Omaha Beach, Gold Beach, Juno Beach and Sword Beach.
The program has something for everyone (book fairs, jives), but there are several must-see events including a 30-minute light and sound show across all five landing beaches simultaneously on 31st May, an International Peace March (Utah Beach to Carentan) on 1 June and the parachuting in of hundreds of international soldiers above Sainte-Mère-Eglise.
The official state commemoration takes place on 6 June 2024 at Omaha Beach, in the town of Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer (Calvados) where 2,500 American soldiers died. It will be attended by President Emmanuel Macron and other global heads of state, as well as veterans, but it isn't a public event. There will be a giant public picnic afterwards though, on Omaha Beach, followed by a concert with fireworks.
The U.S. will hold its own ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer that commemorates the 9,386 American soldiers who were killed in total. It will be open to 5,000 people but tickets must be secured in advance here (the site is currently closed due to high demand, but promises to reopen soon). It is expected to begin around midday.
Secretary Charles Djou of the American Battle Monuments Commission said of the American event, "we have a solemn duty to honor the courageous service of those who gave their all on June 6, 1944, and to reflect on the profound impact their sacrifices had on turning the tide of World War II. The anticipated gathering of over 10,000 visitors from around the globe underscores the indelible mark that D-Day has left on our shared history."
6th June 1944: Reinforcements disembarking from a landing barge at Normandy during the Allied ... [+]
The British Normandy Memorial in France at Ver-sur-Mer commemorates the 22,442 people who died under British command on D-Day and during the Battle of Normandy. It too will hold a memorial service on 6 June 2024 (time to be confirmed) that will be broadcast live on U.K. television. Likewise, Canada will be holding its own commemoration ceremonies, as will other countries at memorials across the region.
Incidentally, two of France's biggest tourist draws of the summer collide on the morning of Thursday 30 May 2024 as the Olympic Flame passes across Omaha Beach.
For anyone planning a trip to the area to visit the D-Day landings, the official French tourist board has a 48-hour program of unmissable spots here and the D-Day commemoration program can be found in both French and English here.
