ELIZABETH JACKSON: The commemorations for D-Day's 70th anniversary are drawing to a close in Normandy where a series of remembrance services have been held.
The main one at Sword Beach drew some of the world's most powerful leaders, as well as 3,000 veterans. A number of Australians, including the Prime Minister, quietly paid their respects.
James Glenday filed this report from Sword Beach.
(The Last Post plays)
JAMES GLENDAY: Among the huge crowds at the D-Day services in Normandy in northern France, there was a small, proud, and at times emotional Australian contingent.
ALISSA LIGGENS: I feel like I'm the most important person in the room because my great uncle did something amazing, yet everybody else is in exactly the same position.
JAMES GLENDAY: Alissa Liggens came from Melbourne to the cemetery at Bayeux to pay her respects to her great uncle, who was killed shortly after the Allied invasion 70 years ago.
ALISSA LIGGENS: We assumed he was shot down and killed on June 7, 1944, and only found out about six or eight weeks ago that he had actually survived the plane crash and went on to battle with some Americans in a little village called Graignes, and was killed on the 11th.
JAMES GLENDAY: Everyone who was there had their own story of sacrifice.
HELEN HUTCHENS: My girlfriend's father was at the D-Day landing, and he landed at Gold Beach.
JAMES GLENDAY: Helen Hutchens says it's an anniversary all Australians should be proud of.
HELEN HUTCHENS: It's about those men that landed on those beaches in the morning and came ashore under fire, and how they were able to free and make this a better place and a better world for all of us, really.
JAMES GLENDAY: There are few of those veterans left; just seven former Australian airmen were able to make the trip. They mingled with Prince Charles and then marched with the Prime Minister.
TONY ABBOTT: It's been a remarkable day. It's been a day of remembering, a day of honouring.
JAMES GLENDAY: Tony Abbott paused at the graves of two Australian airmen who were killed on D-Day before speaking with the Queen and taking part in the pomp and ceremony of the international service at Sword Beach in Normandy.
TONY ABBOTT: Beautifully done, it was tremendous to be in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen and Prince Philip and Prince Charles. All up, one of those special days; a reminder of the ties that bind.
JAMES GLENDAY: The 70th anniversary commemorations attracted leaders from across the world, and the PM got the opportunity to get to know a few of them a bit better. He lunched with the likes of Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, and David Cameron. A bilateral meeting with German chancellor Angela Merkel was cancelled, but this evening Tony Abbott is scheduled to hold talks with French president Francois Hollande.
Today is his final full day in Europe, and much of it will be spent touring key World War One sites. He'll confirm a new Australian interpretive centre, named after World War One general Sir John Monash, will open at Villers-Bretonneux on the Western Front in time for Anzac Day in 2018. Mr Abbott heads to North America tomorrow for the next leg of his trip.
From Sword Beach in Normandy, this is James Glenday reporting for Saturday AM.
The main one at Sword Beach drew some of the world's most powerful leaders, as well as 3,000 veterans. A number of Australians, including the Prime Minister, quietly paid their respects.
James Glenday filed this report from Sword Beach.
(The Last Post plays)
JAMES GLENDAY: Among the huge crowds at the D-Day services in Normandy in northern France, there was a small, proud, and at times emotional Australian contingent.
ALISSA LIGGENS: I feel like I'm the most important person in the room because my great uncle did something amazing, yet everybody else is in exactly the same position.
JAMES GLENDAY: Alissa Liggens came from Melbourne to the cemetery at Bayeux to pay her respects to her great uncle, who was killed shortly after the Allied invasion 70 years ago.
ALISSA LIGGENS: We assumed he was shot down and killed on June 7, 1944, and only found out about six or eight weeks ago that he had actually survived the plane crash and went on to battle with some Americans in a little village called Graignes, and was killed on the 11th.
JAMES GLENDAY: Everyone who was there had their own story of sacrifice.
HELEN HUTCHENS: My girlfriend's father was at the D-Day landing, and he landed at Gold Beach.
JAMES GLENDAY: Helen Hutchens says it's an anniversary all Australians should be proud of.
HELEN HUTCHENS: It's about those men that landed on those beaches in the morning and came ashore under fire, and how they were able to free and make this a better place and a better world for all of us, really.
JAMES GLENDAY: There are few of those veterans left; just seven former Australian airmen were able to make the trip. They mingled with Prince Charles and then marched with the Prime Minister.
TONY ABBOTT: It's been a remarkable day. It's been a day of remembering, a day of honouring.
JAMES GLENDAY: Tony Abbott paused at the graves of two Australian airmen who were killed on D-Day before speaking with the Queen and taking part in the pomp and ceremony of the international service at Sword Beach in Normandy.
TONY ABBOTT: Beautifully done, it was tremendous to be in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen and Prince Philip and Prince Charles. All up, one of those special days; a reminder of the ties that bind.
JAMES GLENDAY: The 70th anniversary commemorations attracted leaders from across the world, and the PM got the opportunity to get to know a few of them a bit better. He lunched with the likes of Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, and David Cameron. A bilateral meeting with German chancellor Angela Merkel was cancelled, but this evening Tony Abbott is scheduled to hold talks with French president Francois Hollande.
Today is his final full day in Europe, and much of it will be spent touring key World War One sites. He'll confirm a new Australian interpretive centre, named after World War One general Sir John Monash, will open at Villers-Bretonneux on the Western Front in time for Anzac Day in 2018. Mr Abbott heads to North America tomorrow for the next leg of his trip.
From Sword Beach in Normandy, this is James Glenday reporting for Saturday AM.
