LONDON — President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel joined their counterparts from Britain, France and other nations on Wednesday to mark the 75th anniversary of the 1944 D-Day landings, which changed the course of World War II in Europe.

Trump, Merkel, British Prime Minister Theresa May, French President Emmanuel Macron and other leaders watched readings, re-enactments, song and dance performances and fly-pasts by World War II aircraft in the southern English city of Portsmouth.

Trump joined Queen Elizabeth II in meeting veterans following the ceremony to mark the assault on German-occupied Normandy in western France by more than 150,000 British, US, French and other Allied troops.

“Seventy-five years ago, hundreds of thousands of young soldiers, sailors and airmen left these shores in the cause of freedom,” the queen said in a speech.

She praised the bravery of the veterans, saying “the fate of the world depended on their success.”

“Many of them would never return, and the heroism, courage and sacrifice of those who lost their lives will never be forgotten,” the queen said.

“It is with humility and pleasure, on behalf of the entire country —indeed the whole free world —that I say to you all, thank you.”

Trump, May and other leaders are also scheduled to travel to Normandy for French commemorations of D-Day on Thursday.

One former soldier, 99-year-old John Jenkins, took to the stage to say he was “terrified” when he joined the D-Day operation.

“I was terrified, I think everyone was,” Jenkins said. “I was just a small part in a very big machine.”

Trump, Macron, May and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau all read from letters and other documents from 1944.

Trump, on the final day of a three-day state visit to Britain, read from the prayer that Franklin Roosevelt, the US president in 1944, broadcast by radio.

“Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavour, a struggle to preserve our republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity,” he said.

Macron thanked the veterans “on behalf of my nation.” He read the final letter written by French resistance fighter Henri Fertet, who was executed at 16 years old.

May said earlier that Wednesday’s event would “reaffirm the enduring importance of the Western alliance and the shared values that underpin it.”

“The Normandy landings 75 years ago were a moment of historic international cooperation,” she said.

British opposition Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn said the troops involved in the D-Day landings had shown “unimaginable heroism.”

“Many laid down their lives in the fight against fascism,” Corbyn said. “We must not just commemorate those who fought, and died, but honour them by opposing the forces of hatred today.”

After talks with May on Tuesday, Trump said Allied soldiers were “heroes who laid down their lives to rescue civilization itself” from Nazi Germany.

He said the United States and Britain had built “the greatest alliance the world has ever known.”