World leaders pay homage to D-Day's history-makers

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-06-07 20:11

(L to R) US President Barack Obama, Britain's Prince Charles, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and France's President Nicolas Sarkozy arrive at the Colleville-sur-Mer cemetery to attend a ceremony marking the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, June 6, 2009. [Agencies]

"This day marks the triumph of right over wrong... the victory of human decency over hatred and the Holocaust," he added.

But in a gaffe which could be interpreted as a symptom of domestic political troubles, Brown renamed the famed Omaha beach "Obama beach."

Obama was accompanied to the cemetery by his wife Michelle, who wore a crisp white Narciso Rodriguez suit, with Sarkozy's wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy in matching white Christian Dior.

Among guests at the ceremony was Tom Hanks, star of "Saving Private Ryan" which begins with graphic scenes depicting the Normandy landings.

Former Republican presidential candiate, senator and wounded World War II hero Bob Dole was there as was Charlie Payne, Obama's great uncle, who took part in the liberation of the Buchenwald Nazi concentration camp in Germany which Obama visited on Friday.

One veteran H. Smith Shumway, 87, a lieutenant who came ashore on D-Day, walked between the graves of his fallen comrades at the US cemetery on the cliffs overlooking Omaha beach.

"I want to thank you for your service," said a young US marine in dress uniform, shaking the hand of Shumway, who was blinded by an anti-tank mine in July 1944.

Shumway has been trying to find the remains of a US spy, captured and killed after they lost contact on a night patrol soon after D-Day.

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