Joe McConnell
Commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the Allied landings in southern France have been partly cancelled due to the risk of thunderstorms.
French President Emmanuel Macron was due to hold a reception with other heads of state aboard the amphibious helicopter carrier Dixmude, but the event was cancelled.
The planned reenactment of the landing in Toulon has also been cancelled.
The landing in Provence played a key role in the liberation of France during World War II, allowing Allied forces to reconquer much of southern France.
Sometimes called the forgotten D-Day, they occurred shortly after the much better known Normandy landings.
Shortly before the start of the commemorations, the Elysée announced that the reception on the Dixmude would no longer take place.
Meanwhile, the local authority of the Var region said in a statement that the reenactments on the Lido beach in Mourillon had been cancelled due to “unfavourable weather conditions and the significant risk of storms”.
Severe storms and heavy rain are expected in the region, with winds up to 140 km/h (87 mph).
The landings in Provence began when approximately 100,000 American, British and Canadian soldiers landed on the beaches of the French Riviera on August 15, 1944.
250,000 soldiers followed, recruited largely from France’s colonies in North and sub-Saharan Africa.
However, it took decades for the role they played in commemorating the military operation to be shed light on.
“France had forgotten about us, but it is making up for lost time,” said Oumar Dieme, a former Senegalese infantryman who was present at the ceremony, according to the AFP news agency.
Speaking at a ceremony at the Boulouris National Cemetery in the city of Saint-Raphaël, Macron said the men who took part in the landing had fought for “the right to self-determination, their sovereignty, their territorial integrity”.
He paid tribute to the crucial role played by African soldiers, often forcibly recruited and from what is now Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Gabon, Togo, Morocco and Niger.
“All of them accomplished, that day and those that followed, a work whose immense dangers they knew. And yet they did it with courageous boldness and irrefutable strength.”
The French president was joined by six African leaders, including Paul Biya of Cameroon and Faustin-Archange Touadera of the Central African Republic.
In a speech, Mr Biya said: “There would have been no Allied victory without the contribution of other peoples, without foreigners.”
He added: “These brave soldiers from West Africa, Equatorial Africa, Madagascar or the Indian Ocean have distinguished themselves magnificently.
“They paid a very high price for victory. They were exemplary fighters, often heirs to timeless traditions of war, admirable for their courage, daring and loyalty.”
The soldiers of the landing in Provence, called Operation Dragoon, played a pivotal role in the capture of the key Mediterranean ports of Marseille and Toulon and increased the pressure on Nazi forces by opening a new front.
