PARIS, France — The Normandy D-Day beaches, where Allied forces landed on June 6, 1944, to fight Adolf Hitler's Nazi troops and go on to liberate France, became a UNESCO-protected world heritage site, the United Nations body said.
In a statement on its website Sunday, UNESCO said the beaches formed an "exceptional cultural landscape shaped both by the events of 1944 and by their enduring remembrance," which therefore justified becoming a protected heritage site.
The Normandy D-Day beaches are regularly the focus of commemorations featuring world leaders from the United States, Britain, Canada and France.
U.S. reinforcements land on Omaha beach June 6, 1944, near Vierville sur Mer, France, during the Normandy D-Day landings.
Soldiers participating in the Normandy landings came from the U.S., Britain, Canada, Belgium, Norway, Poland, Luxembourg, Greece, Czechoslovakia, New Zealand and Australia. About 177 French commandos also took part.
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The assault 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 to beaches codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword — or were airdropped behind German coastal defenses.
