Photo gallery: At Normandy, thousands of tombstones are lit by candle in memory of D-Day

Powerful emotions have washed over Normandy, France, this week, where some of the world’s last surviving World War II veterans have converged to commemorate Thursday’s 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion — June 6, 1944 — and the ensuing push into France that in an unprecedented show of military might and audacity finally turned the war’s tide against Nazi Germany.

The veterans — including dozens of Americans flown to France from Dallas and Atlanta — have experienced the joy of a hero’s welcome from dignitaries, schoolchildren and current and past servicemen and servicewomen. But the solemn weight of the occasion has been ever-present as the veterans have shared their memories, revisited the cliffs and beaches where thousands of their comrades laid down their lives, and driven home the message that the sacrifices of life and limb made throughout the war must never be forgotten.

Tuesday evening brought another powerful scene, as the more than 2,100 tombstones at the Commonwealth war cemetery of Banneville-La-Campagne in Normandy were hauntingly set aglow by candlelight. View a selection of of the images from that ceremony in the slideshow.

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