h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I am 47 years old and was born 16 years after the end of World War 2.
I watched the coverage on the BBC of the D-Day celebration at Arromanches. I was touched to see the fly past and the cheer given by all those brave servicemen and women who during wartime would have been thankful to hear those familiar engine sounds.

I listened as the Master of Ceremonies introduced the French Prime Minister and welcomed and thanked him for his participation. He then went on to introduce the ENGLISH Prime Minister!!

This Master of Ceremonies totally ruined this event for me. How must Scottish, Welsh and Irish military personnel have felt? Were there no Scottish troops scrambling over the Normandy beaches? Were there no Welsh or Irish veterans of that hellish conflict.

Whoever the Master of Ceremonies is I feel he owes an apology to those that he insulted. I am still upset today and hence this post was made.

There were some unforgivable errors. Gordon Brown spoke of "Obama Beach" when of course it is Omaha Beach.

I found the ceremony painful to watch because 5 years ago at the 60th anniversary my dear father (who wrote this article) was there and he was chosen to be interviewed by the reporter with the handlebar moustache. I still have the recording. I watched on TV as the Queen arrived only to be upstaged by the late arrival of President Bush.

It's unforgivable that the Queen was not invited this time, (although I am glad Prince Charles was there, I noticed no-one played him any mind) and the veterans showed their displeasure at her absence by booing the British Prime Minister, a sight I have never witnessed before, and for once I am grateful my father did not live to see that (although he would also have been booing along with his mates).



Galaxy Babe

My late Father was a Gunner with the Royal Artillery and landed on D-Day on Sword Beach. What he did tell me about was after landing, the next battles he was involved in were the Falaise Gap, Caen, Battle of the Bulge, the Ardennes,Nihmeghen in Holland, Crossing the Rhine and finally arriving in Germany, where after Victory, he was on the bridge between Harbourg and Hamburg overseeing the re-patriation of Germans back to what was left of their homes in Hamburg which had been flattened by bombs. My Father told me about a family comprising of young Mother , her children and her Mother sheltering in a basement of a derelict house.He told them, after leaving them some food which the British Army were not allowed to do by the non-fraternisation orders, that the Russians were on their way to Germany and he re-called the look of absolute fear on the faces of the women when they found that out. My Father ' ended up' at Vismar on the Baltic coast before his de-mob back to Britain.

I totally agree with you regarding to the reference to the ' English Prime Minister'. I am English but it is indeed an insult to the other British nations who took part in D-Day. I expect the MC did not even realise he had made a faux par, but he must by now have been enlightened and in my opinion should make an apology somewhere in the media.