DEB11-2: FDC France 2011 "POINTE DU HOC, D-DAY 1944 - Senator JOHN KERRY"

Senator Mr. John Kerry (USA) visits Normandy for D-Day 67th anniversary :

CRICQUEVILLE-EN-BESSIN, France — World War II veterans and Sen. John Kerry are commemorating the D-Day landings in Normandy at an iconic and eroding cliff.

The visit is one of several events along the coast Monday marking 67 years since Allied forces landed on a swath of beaches in Nazi-occupied France. The June, 6, 1944, invasion and ensuing battle for Normandy helped change the course of the war.

Kerry and the veterans are visiting Pointe du Hoc, where elite U.S. Rangers scaled jagged cliffs in one of the most trying missions of the invasion.

The limestone and clay cliffs have eroded by 33 feet since D-Day.

Pointe du Hoc reopened to the public in March after extensive restoration efforts, organized by the American Battle Monuments Commission. Some half a million people visit the site each year.