Normandy’s D-Day World War Two beaches become UNESCO heritage site
PARIS, July 26 (Reuters) – The D-Day beaches of Normandy, where Allied forces landed on June 6, 1944 to fight Adolf Hitler’s Nazi troops and liberate France, have become a UNESCO-protected world heritage site, the United Nations body said on Sunday.
• UNESCO said in a statement on its website that the beaches constitute “an extraordinary cultural landscape shaped by both the events of 1944 and their enduring memories and therefore justify becoming a protected heritage site.”
• Normandy D-Day beaches are regularly the focus of commemorations attended by world leaders from the US, UK, Canada and France.
• Soldiers participating in the Normandy landings came from the USA, England, Canada, Belgium, Norway, Poland, Luxembourg, Greece, Czechoslovakia, New Zealand and Australia. Approximately 177 French commandos also participated.
• The attack marked a decisive stage in the liberation of Europe from Nazi Germany in World War II.
• In total, 156,115 Allied troops either landed by sea on the beaches codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword, or were airdropped behind the German coastal defenses.
(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by David Holmes)
