World leaders and royalty joined veterans to mark the 65th Anniversary of D-Day in Normandy today.

Gordon Brown, the Prince of Wales, Barack Obama, Stephen Harper, the Canadian Prime Minister, and Nicolas Sarkozy attended the remembrance service at a cemetery for US servicemen in Colleville-sur-Mer.

Paying his respects to the thousands of allied troops who died during the invasion, Mr Brown said: "There is an unbroken line from the Normandy landings to the fall of Berlin to the end of the Second World War and then to creation of a postwar society.

"So the men we are celebrating today and commemorating those dead are the people who not only liberated Europe but made possible the freedoms we all enjoy today."

The arrival of the US President and his wife, Michelle, by helicopter was accompanied by a brass band playing a composition of rousing 1940s military music.

Speaking at the service Mr Obama praised the united efforts of the allied forces "against all odds". He said: “They were American, British and Canadian.”

“The sheer improbability of this victory is part of what makes D-Day so memorable.

“It also arises from the clarity of purpose with which this war was waged. We live in a world of competing beliefs and claims about what is true. It is a world of varied religions and cultures and forms of government.

“In such a world, it is rare for a struggle to emerge that speaks to something universal about humanity. The Second World War did that.”

The President, who this week has been attempting to heal strained US relations with the Middle-East, added: “The nations and leaders that joined together to defeat Hitler’s Reich were not perfect. We had made our share of mistakes, and had not always agreed with one another on every issue.

“But whatever God we prayed to, whatever our differences, we knew that the evil we faced had to be stopped."

National anthems were played to a crowd of thousands gathered in front of the cemetery's open arc memorial.

A wreath was laid at the memorial followed by a 21-gun salute, before a thunderous flyover marked the end of the service.

The event had been in danger of being overshadowed by controversy after President Sarkozy failed to invite the Queen. After accusations that he had tried to play down the role of British and Canadian forces an invitation was hastily arranged for Prince Charles.

This morning the Prince and Mr Brown attended a remembrance service at Bayeux Cathedral, alongside Normandy veterans, serving servicemen and women and sea, army and air cadets.

The Prince of Wales also attended a special service dedicated to British veterans of the Normandy landings at Bayeux cemetery. He was greeted with cheers and applause from the former servicemen, many of them angry at how the Royal Family had been treated by the French authorities.

Peter Lennard, a troop commander with 30th Corps Anti Tank Regiment on D-Day, said afterwards: “It was lovely to meet him. I was so fed up about it. I felt like saying to him, ’How’s your mum?'."

The 92-year-old former soldier, from Maidstone, Kent, was on the first assault on D-Day, landing on Sword Beach at 7.15am. Today he used a mobility scooter although he stood to meet the Prince. He said: “I arrived in a tank and I’m going in a scooter.”

The British dignitaries then joined their French and US counterparts at Colleville's Normandy American Cemetery, where more than 9,000 US Servicemen are buried. The cemetery overlooks Omaha beach, which was the last coastal stronghold to be captured in the invasion.

Hollywood star Tom Hanks, who starred in the film Saving Private Ryan, which dramatised the landings, also attended the service.

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