Amsterdam - Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Britain's Prince Philip and World War II veterans on Sunday attended a ceremony marking the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Dutch city of Nijmegen from German occupation. "You and your comrades gave so much," Nijmegen mayor Thomas de Graaff told the veterans present at the ceremony, adding "we owe you so much".
The commanding officers of the World War II British and US forces were subsequently awarded honorary silver medals by the city of Nijmegen.
Several thousand people applauded the laying of the wreath by the ambassador of Germany to the Netherlands - the first time a German ambassador officiated at the annual commemoration.
The ceremony was among a host of events commemorating the liberation of the Netherlands that began on September 17, 1944 with the landing of thousands of British, Polish and American troops in the south-east of the country.
Operation Market Garden liberated the south in September 1944, leaving the centre and north of the country under German occupation until May 1945.
Sunday's events began with a ceremony at the airborne cemetery at Arnhem commemorating the soldiers killed in the operation.
Several recreations of the Allied forces' landing in 1944 took place over the weekend, including a landing by hundreds of parachutists recreatomg the September 17, 1944 landing of British forces near Ede in the eastern Netherlands.
Some 50 German soldiers also participated in the landing, which was watched, among others, by dozens of Allied war veterans.
On Friday, Germany's ambassador to the Netherlands laid a wreath at the airborne monument near the famous John Frost Bridge over the river Rhine at Arnhem.
The bridge, which functions as the main entrance to the city, of Arnhem, was the scene of heavy battle between Allied and German forces in 1944 that claimed the lives of thousands of Allied troops were killed.
