Bush dedicates US D-Day memorial
Before his European trip next week, President George W Bush is today visiting a small Virginia farming town that is now home to the National D Day Memorial, symbol of the ties that bind America to her transatlantic allies.
The president was dedicating the memorial in Bedford on the 57th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy.
On June 6 1944, D Day, 156,000 allied soldiers formed the largest armada in history to breach Adolf Hitler’s Atlantic Wall on the northern coast of France.
Bedford is the site of the new memorial of concrete and polished granite because, in the Normandy campaign, the Virginia town of 3,400 people lost 23 of the 35 soldiers it had sent overseas. It was the highest per-capita loss for any US community.
White House aides said Bush wanted to use his speech in Bedford to salute the honour and valour of American service personnel and the particularly great sacrifice that Bedford made.
But he also wanted, his aides said, to set the stage for his first trip to Europe as president.
Bush leaves Monday night for a week long trip to Spain, Poland, Belgium, Slovenia and Sweden.
In meetings along the way with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and NATO and European Union allies, Bush will confront strong international opposition to his pledge to build an anti-missile shield and his decision to abandon the Kyoto agreement on global warming.
Bedford’s £9.5m monument, paid for entirely by donations, sits on 88 acres of pastureland.
Surrounding the arch are flags of Britain, France, Australia, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Canada, Greece, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland and the United States - countries that participated in the invasion.
