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World War II Memorial

Remembering the Battles for Freedom

President and Laura Bush mark the memory of America and the Allied Forces' D-Day Invasion during a visit to Omaha Beach at Normandy, France, May 27, 2002. More than 5,000 ships and 12,000 planes carried troops across the English Channel into battle in which the Allied Forces suffered more than 9,000 casualties. The victory in this epic battle was the key to the Allies' victory in the war. President Bush salutes a veteran during a Memorial Day service at Notre Dame De La Paix Church at Normandy, France, May 27, 2002. The President and Mrs. Bush visited the beach and attended American ceremony in honor of D-Day veterans. "Only a man who is there, charging out of a landing craft, can know what it was like," said the President in his remarks. "For the entire liberating force, there was only the ground in front of them -- no shelter, no possibility of retreat. They were part of the largest amphibious landing in history, and perhaps the only great battle in which the wounded were carried forward." President and Mrs. Bush place a rose at the end of the railroad tracks at the Birkenau concentration camp, also known as Auschwitz II, in Poland, May 31, 2003.
Vice President Dick Cheney and Lynne Cheney tour Winston Churchill's Cabinet War Room in London March 11, 2002. Sitting at the center chair in this underground bunker, Prime Minister Churchill met with his advisors and commanded England's forces. Shortly after Pearl Harbor, the Prime Minister took a risky journey to meet with President Roosevelt in Washington, D.C., and address Congress Dec. 26, 1941. The two leaders worked closely throughout the war, often in secret, to coordinate Allied Forces. President Bush lays a wreath at the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor Oct. 23, 2003. The memorial marks the resting place of 1,177 crewmen who died during the Dec. 7, 1941, attack upon Pearl Harbor. Their names are carved into the marble wall visited by President Bush. President and Laura Bush tour the USS Missouri at Pearl Harbor Oct. 23, 2003. Commissioned in 1944, the "Mighty Mo" served in the Pacific theater of World War II and was the site of Japan's surrender to Allied Forces Sept. 2, 1945. After several more deployments, including a Persian Gulf tour in 1991, the battleship the battleship served its final mission when it returned to Pearl Harbor to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the infamous attack.

As the National World War II Memorial pays tribute to all veterans of the greatest generation, we remember a few of those memories that distinguish that generation's great defense of freedom.