D-Day 65th anniversary

Only 15 days to go until my next trip to Normandy...

I'm currently in the midst of making preparations for our family trip back to France...and this year it will coincide with the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings. A few days after we 'land' Pegasus and his family will be coming over to join us for the remainder of our holiday.

The Normandie Memoire website lists all the ceremonies and events that will be taking place during the anniversary period and Pegasus and myself are using it to plan an itinery of the events that we will be trying to attend.

Some of them include the mass parachute drop at Ranville by a british battalion, the midnight ceremony at Benouville on the night of the 5th and the parade march across Pegasus Bridge by veterans from Major Howard's company . We will also be attending as many of the wreath laying ceremonies, that are taking place at the military cemeteries in the Normandy area, that time permits.

Who knows?...We may also meet Barack Obama or Nicolas Sarkozy while we're there...although I'll take a pass on meeting Gordon Brown if he's around.

This is the link for the Normandie Memoire website.
http://www.normandiememoire.com/NM60Anglais/communication/index.php?item=0&rubrique=13

 

have a nice trip and take some photos for us
jagdpanther 44

 

2 Days to go...

The itinery of events that we will hopefully be attending is now complete and the cases are packed...the next 2 days are going to draaaaaaag !

 

Hope you manage to squeeze it all in John ... You, Neil and the family have a good one mate. Don't forget the memory cards and batteries for all the photos for us Rogues not fortunate enough to be joining y'all ...

 

Have a wonderful time!

 

Yes, please take lots of memory chips, lots of batteries, and do share your trip with the rest of we Rogues who cannot make the trip! You dog, you lucky dog, enjoy yourself.

 

oops??

Palace: No invitation to queen for D-Day ceremony - Yahoo! News

Neither she, nor any member of the royal family was invited to attend the ceremony at the American Cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach on June 6, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said while speaking on condition of anonymity in line with policy.

The dispute seems to have taken French officials somewhat by surprise. They insist the monarch was welcome at the ceremony and blamed the British government for mistakes in the handling of what they called a "Franco-American" ceremony.

"It is not up to France to determine the British representation," French government spokesman Luc Chatel said. "There will be other 6ths of June."

 

Thanks everyone!

As with some of my previous trips to Normandy, I'll be taking my laptop along with me and aim to do some 'live updates' while i'm there.

So watch this space!....

Kai, I'm hoping there will be an eleventh hour turnaround on the royal family attending the anniversary in Normandy. It would be fantastic to see our monarch there.

 

Quoted for truth. Uk yellow journalism really took to a new low over this issue, blaming France without any close look at what really happened. Putting it simply, Brown cocked up on his duties.

Remembering the beaches | Robert Fox | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk


"It seems that the main culprit is not Sarkozy, whose forebears had a dreadful experience in the second world war in the ghetto of Thessaloniki and in Hungary. According to the Daily Mail, not entirely reliable on matters of royal pique and foreign relations, the French president told the British government to nominate who they wanted as representing Britain and the Commonwealth in Normandy.
At first Gordon Brown said has wasn't going, now he has said he is. First he said there should be a memorial service for the Normandy campaign at Westminster Abbey next month, and now he has called it off. For a man who purports to have such a deep interest in history, at times his understanding of it, and its legacy in the collective memory, seems remarkably shallow. His dithering and grudging decision to attend the ceremonies means that many of those nations who went ashore under British and Canadian command in 1944, including Poles, Jews and refugee units from across occupied Europe, will be under-represented.
Brown's own history of support for the armed forces has, if anything, been worse than that of Tony Blair."

I hope those who go to Normandy enjoy themselves thoroughly, but I also hope that while you're there, you understand the fault over the Queen not recieving her invite lies not with France, but with Brown.

 

Have a great time John, I am not going because of work , but I will send friends with instructions.

 

D-Day veterans to sound last post on Normandy beaches - Telegraph

 

Prince Charles to attend D-Day ceremony - Yahoo! News

Prince Charles will attend this week's 65th-anniversary commemoration of the D-Day landings, royal officials said Tuesday, in an attempt to defuse a cross-Channel spat over France's alleged failure to invite his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.

Charles' office announced he would attend, alongside President Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, after days of outrage by British veterans and commentators over the omission of the queen, who is Britain's head of state and supreme commander of its armed forces.

 

It should be our Queen but once again politicians make a mess of it, that a side I hope all the vets have a good time.

 

Gentelmen:

I am posting this memory of three of my comrads I still miss Maj. Jack Vaughn,1st Lt. Bernard Bucier,Lt. Ralph Magri all lost D Day. God keep you all.

As Ever,

Walter L. Marlowe
!st Lt. 502nd Parachute Infantry
( Airborne All the Way)

 

May they rest in peace.

 

If they are buried in France let me know where, I will put flowers on their graves the next time I drive to Normandy .

 

Caps Off ... Heads Bowed ... May They Rest In Peace....:mourn:

 

God Bless you sir. Thank you so very much for your service!

 

D-Day badge marks Queen's absence - Yahoo! News UK