SAINTE-MARIE-DU-MONT, France — The U.S. Navy was honored Saturday for its key role in the massive amphibious wartime invasion that helped propel the Allies to victory in World War II.
Hundreds of uniformed 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 code-named 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, and unleashed about 156,000 soldiers, mostly Americans, Britons and Canadians, in a massive assault known as D-Day.
