WWII honors for U.S. Navy

The U.S. Navy was honored for its key role in the massive amphibious wartime invasion that helped propel the Allies to victory in World War II.

Hundreds of American sailors and French well-wishers, as well as a few Navy veterans of the war, joined U.S. and French officials on Utah Beach for the inauguration of Normandy’s first monument honoring the sacrifices of U.S. sailors in the conflict against Nazi Germany. Utah was one of five landing beaches for the invasion.

The U.S. Navy Monument at Normandy features a 12-foot bronze statue of a Navy captain and two sailors overlooking the beach, where a 5,000-vessel armada landed June 6, 1944, with about 156,000 soldiers, mostly Americans, British and Canadians, in the massive assault known as D-day.