Veterans gather for D-Day event!

Many veterans have come to remember fallen comrades

Veterans of D-Day are preparing to take part in ceremonies in France, marking the 65th anniversary of the Allied Normandy landings.

US President Barack Obama, France's Nicolas Sarkozy, as well as the Canadian and British prime ministers and Prince Charles are taking part.

They will attend commemorations at a cemetery near Omaha Beach, where many American soldiers died on 6 June 1944.

The Allies suffered 215,000 casualties on D-Day and in the Normandy campaign.

Germany suffered similar losses as the Allies fought desperately up the beaches and into the French countryside to form a bridgehead.

President Obama flew into Paris late on Friday after a brief trip to Germany in which he and Chancellor Angela Merkel toured the Buchenwald concentration camp.

Later on Saturday he will join President Sarkozy for talks in Caen before delivering a speech at the US war cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, which overlooks Omaha Beach.

Veterans of the landings will be among the invited audience.

President Obama's great-uncle, Charlie Payne, 84, who helped to liberate a concentration camp near Buchenwald, has also travelled to Normandy.

Also present will be British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Canada's Stephen Harper.

Britain's Prince Charles was invited after the US intervened in a cross-channel row over the lack of an invitation for Queen Elizabeth.

"It's a great feeling ... to come here," said Austin Cox, 90, of Maryland, who landed on Omaha Beach as a sergeant with the 29th Division of the US 115th Infantry Regiment.

"My comrades though are buried over at Omaha," he said.

US First Lady Michelle Obama and her daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, seven, arrived in France shortly before the president.

After the D-Day ceremonies, President Obama and his family will return to Paris where they plan to visit Notre Dame Cathedral. They are due to fly back to the US on Sunday.

BBC NEWS REPORT.