The Normandy D-Day beaches where Allied forces landed on June 6, 1944, to ​fight Adolf Hitler’s Nazi troops and ‌go on to liberate France have become a UNESCO protected world heritage site, the United Nations ​body said on Sunday.

In a ​statement on its website, UNESCO said that ⁠the beaches formed an “exceptional cultural landscape ​shaped both by the events of 1944 and ​by their enduring remembrance”, which therefore justified becoming a protected heritage site.

The Normandy D-Day beaches are ​regularly the focus of commemorations featuring ​world leaders from the United States, Britain, Canada and ‌France.

⁠Soldiers participating in the Normandy landings came from the United States, Britain, Canada, Belgium, Norway, Poland, Luxembourg, Greece, Czechoslovakia, New Zealand ​and Australia.

Some ​177 ⁠French commandos also took part.

The assault marked a decisive stage in ​the liberation of Europe from Nazi ​Germany ⁠in World War Two.

In total, 156,115 Allied troops either landed by sea — onto beaches ​codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, ​Juno and Sword — or were airdropped behind German coastal ​defences.