OMAHA BEACH, France — D-Day veterans and other people are marking exactly 75 years since the invasion of Normandy that helped change the course of World War II.

The sea of mercury blue couldn’t have been more peaceful as the sun rose Thursday over Omaha Beach. About 100 people gathered at dawn on the edge of the waters that ran red here on June 6, 1944, the first of five code-named beaches where Allied forces came ashore to push the Nazis out of France.

American Richard Clapp said it was sobering to admire the “beautiful sunrise” where Allied troops came ashore.

Norwegian Sigrid Flaata drove from Oslo in a 1942 restored jeep to honor the soldiers who died on D-Day. Belgian Filip Van Hecke called his journey a “small effort to pay homage.”