That day on the beaches of Normandy

Heroic tales of sacrifice and valour, in comparison with which any venture of ours to recreate them pales severely both in stature and significance, were written sixty years ago. Over the weekend, memorials and solemn commemorations shall mark the sixtieth anniversary of D-Day, a single day that brought in its roll the nobility and evil in mankind. The thousands of soldiers that died on D-Day and the year earlier at the Battle of Stalingrad -- American, British, Canadian, Russian and many others died for a cause that each considered higher than any of them. In particular, the American contingent bore the biggest brunt of this savagery with 17.5% casualties on the first day of Operation Overlord. Amongst the men of A Company of the 1st Battalion which was amongst the first troops to land on the beaches of Normandy, it was 93% and 19 of these were from a little town in Bedford, West Virginia. Whatever one thinks of and decries American doctrine today, one cannot but defer to its selfless, morally unequivocal and precipient foreign policy then. But let us not be distracted by those that ministrated the war from behind desks and podia, for we celebrate them without fail every year. Let us instead choose to pay homage to the greatest generation, as theirs has been rightly hailed, who shall forever be remembered for the purest gesture they could make to the ages ahead of them -- that of life dispensed so that life be rekindled. It is not just the people in America or Europe, but all of us who have reaped of their precious gift, that owe them an eternally irreparable debt of gratitude and humility.

D-Day ceremonies

Pegasus Bridge

D-Day Events picture gallery

D-Day BBC Talking Point

A Company, 506th PIR Roster

Timeline of the invasion

Don't forget the Russians!

Veterans' tribute to Montgomery

Pictures from the original Operation Overlord

On this day, Rome is liberated

BBC's D-Day coverage

CNN D-Day special