France says Russia can be represented but president will not be invited because of war in Ukraine
Russia will be invited to send representatives to an international ceremony commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-day – but not Vladimir Putin, the French organisers have announced.
The Élysée is reported to have accepted that the country should be represented but said its leader is not welcome because of Moscow’s ongoing war on Ukraine.
Continue reading...Gautier was one of 177 green berets in the Kieffer unit which stormed the Normandy beaches on 6 June 1944
Leon Gautier, the last surviving member of the French commando unit that waded ashore on D-day alongside allied troops to begin the liberation of France, died on Monday. He was 100 years old.
Gautier was one of 177 French green berets who stormed the Normandy beaches defended by Hitler’s forces in 1944.
Continue reading...Critics say €90m project would reduce allied landing to a money-spinning tourist attraction
A row has erupted in France over plans for a new D-day attraction near the landing beaches, which critics have likened to a Disney-style theme park.
The multimillion-euro project to retell the story of le débarquement of 6 June 1944 and the subsequent Battle of Normandy in a hi-tech 45-minute “immersive show” has sparked a furious war of words, with opponents describing it as disrespectful to those who died and their families.
Continue reading...Ceremony takes place at Ver-sur-Mer for 22,442 soldiers under British command who died during D-day and Battle of Normandy
They fought on the beaches of Normandy, they fought on the landing grounds in the fields and streets and hills. As Winston Churchill had promised, they did not surrender.
On Sunday, the names of 22,442 soldiers under British command who died on D-day and the subsequent Battle of Normandy were engraved in stone as a permanent reminder of their sacrifice as a new British Normandy memorial was unveiled.
Continue reading...Normandy locals mourn the absence of the Allied soldiers forced to stay at home for the first time in 76 years
In Ranville cemetery, a lone piper playing Amazing Grace walked solemnly between the graves as the early morning sun reflected off the rows of white headstones.
Every 6 June for the last 75 years, the soldiers who made it off the Normandy beaches in 1944 have returned to remember comrades who did not. Every year, the pilgrimage became a different kind of battle but still they came, in fewer numbers but just as determined to overcome the odds as they were when they landed to liberate France.
Continue reading...With sketch writers banned from his press conference with Theresa May, I was forced to endure it on TV
Sometimes I worry I am more psychically connected to Tottenham Hotspur than is healthy. Having done my two events at the Hay festival, I went back to the friends I was staying with to watch the Champions League final. Only to find they didn’t have BT Sport and their internet connection was patchy at best. So I ended up viewing the game on my iPad with a screen that kept buffering and then freezing. Which of course was entirely appropriate, because buffering and freezing appeared to be Spurs’ main game plan. The biggest match in the club’s history, against a team playing well below its best, and Spurs also chose to have a complete off day. Even down to giving away a dodgy penalty inside the first minute. You can’t get more Spursy than that. It almost made me proud. Still, there was one upside. The two friends, Matthew and Terry, who ended up using my tickets kept me updated with photos throughout their trip, from their arrival in Toulouse to their eight-hour car journey to Madrid to their picnic on the beach on the way back. What struck me most was that they were both smiling in every shot. Something I would never have managed. I would have been sick with anxiety before the game and acutely depressed after it. There was no avoiding it. The right two people went to the game. Though it was a little upsetting to realise all my friends almost certainly have a better time without me.
Continue reading...Trump and Macron laud Russell Pickett, sole survivor of US infantry company that led the charge
As Russell Pickett, 94, from Tennessee, was helped to his feet by the French president and hugged by Donald Trump, the 15,000 people gathered at the American cemetery in Normandy to commemorate the D-day landings 75 years ago stood to applaud.
“A tough guy,” the US president said, gesturing to the sole survivor of Company A of the 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Division, which led the charge 75 years ago on to Omaha beach, a chaotic bloodbath which became known as the “suicide wave”and was made infamous by the Hollywood film Saving Private Ryan.
Continue reading...In a post-Brexit world British forces will be operating under different rules of engagement
It was impossible not to be moved by the dignity of the diminishing band of D-day veterans in Normandy, 75 years after “the longest day” led to the opening of a new western front that helped bring about Adolf Hitler’s downfall.
Men like Kenneth Hay, who read a poem, Normandy, by another veteran, Cyril Crain, to the congregation at Bayeux Cathedral. As he spoke its concluding words, “When my life is over and I reach the other side, I’ll meet my friends from Normandy and shake their hands with pride”, his voice began to break.
Continue reading...Veterans and world leaders have attended ceremonies to mark 75 years since allied troops landed in France during the second world war
Continue reading...Follow live updates as world leaders join veterans to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-day landings in Normandy
The Élysée Palace is live streaming the ceremony.
EN DIRECT | Cérémonie franco-américaine au cimetière américain, Colleville-sur-Mer. #DDay75https://t.co/zh7bfyDifa
Continue reading...Veterans and world leaders took part in a ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of the Normandy landings. Donald Trump, Emmanuel Macron and Theresa May gave speeches, and there were performances from singers and dancers. Speaking to crowds along Portsmouth seafront, the Queen said that 'the heroism, courage and sacrifice of those who lost their lives will never be forgotten'. The emotional ceremony finished with a sea and air display featuring a second world war Spitfire plane, the RAF red arrows and a warship
Continue reading...Queen and Donald Trump among those marking 75 years since Normandy landings
D-day veterans and world leaders have taken part in an emotional ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of the Normandy landings, with a vast security operation safeguarding dignitaries including the Queen, Donald Trump and Theresa May.
Miles of fencing, roadblocks and checkpoints were in place and residents of nearby flats were told not to aim long-lens cameras at the national commemoration event on Southsea Common, or fly drones over the site.
Continue reading...Darren Jones pulled from canal that was first site liberated by second world war allies in 1944
A British soldier taking part in commemorations of the 75th anniversary of D-day has drowned at a historic second world war battle site in Normandy.
L/Cpl Darren Jones, 30, of the Royal Engineers was declared dead after firefighters pulled him from a canal at Bénouville near Pegasus Bridge, the first site liberated by the allies on 6 June 1944.
Continue reading...The stories of those who were there on 6 June 1944 and others involved in this week’s commemorations
Thousands of people are preparing to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-day landings at commemoration events in the UK and France this week. Senior politicians and members of the royal family as well as hundreds of veterans will attend ceremonies to mark one of the main turning points of the second world war and the biggest amphibious invasion in military history.
More than 200 veterans have boarded a cruise ship, MV Boudicca, charted by the Royal British Legion, to attend the events, while others are descending en masse on Portsmouth and Normandy. Here we hear the stories of those who were there on 6 June 1944 and others involved in this week’s commemorations.
Continue reading...Official commemorations of the battle on 6 June to honour the ‘enormous sacrifice’
The defence secretary, Gavin Williamson, has urged veterans to continue to pass their stories on to future generations, as the 100-day countdown to the 75th anniversary of D-day begins.
Related: Parachutists to fill skies over Normandy on 75th anniversary of D-day
Continue reading...Wartime aircraft will fly in 6 June event commemorating day that turned tide of war
The skies over the UK and Normandy will be filled with wartime Dakota aircraft as hundreds of parachutists take part in a mass airdrop to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-day landings in June.
The plans, unveiled by Imperial War Museums (IWM), are part of a programme on an “unprecedented scale” for the commemoration of the greatest seaborne invasion in history, to liberate Europe from Nazi occupation, on 6 June 1944.
Continue reading...