World War II veterans joined heads of state and others to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day on Thursday. The Allied invasion, which began on 6 June, 1944, led to the defeat of the Nazis and the end of the war. The assault on the beaches began with Allied aircraft bombing German defenses in Normandy, followed by around 1,200 aircraft that carried airborne troops. As dawn broke, Allied forces started bombing German coastal defenses and shortly after that vessels began putting troops ashore on five codenamed beaches: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. By the end of the day, nearly 160,000…