Latest news with #Normandy
BBC News
3 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Funeral celebrates life of one of the last survivors of D-Day
The funeral of one of the last survivors of the assault on the D-Day beaches in 1944 has been held at Wiltshire Newton. from the village of Aldbourne, was 20 years old on D-Day when he was part of a tank crew sent to attack a German blockhouse. His amphibious Sherman Tank was among the first to land on Gold Beach on 6 as "feisty, driven, a little bit mischievous", he was involved in the D-Day 80th anniversary commemorations, and even had a French school named after Graeme Green, the regimental secretary for the Royal Dragoon Guards, described Mr Newton as a "great guy" who always had a "little glint in his eye". He added that Mr Newton was "driven to commemorate his fallen comrades".At the funeral earlier at North Wiltshire Crematorium, near Royal Wootton Bassett, a message was played from the Cecil Newton Primary School in Normandy. Mr Newton was a trooper in the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards and a loader in an amphibious Sherman Tank crew."I was never nervous. I was too young to be nervous. I hadn't got the imagination," he said in a BBC interview about D-day. Along with his crew, he was in action for just a few moments."It was just off the landing craft into the water, an engagement with the blockhouse and then we sank," he said. Later in the war, in November 1944, he was severely wounded with a leg injury and was shot three times when his tank came under attack in a German described himself as "exceptionally lucky to survive" the later those he knew who died in the war was Mr Newton's brother Frederic - shot dead by two Germans who raised their hands to surrender, but then opened June 2024, Mr Newton travelled back to France to take part in the D-Day 80th anniversary also visited a French school named after him and some of the places his comrades fell in battle.
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Climate
- The Guardian
Weather tracker: France reels from deadly thunderstorms and lightning
Severe thunderstorms swept across France last Friday, killing one person and injuring another. Two systems were involved, prompting orange weather warnings: the first came from the west via Brittany and hit the north of the country, and the second arrived via Spain and affected south-west France. More than 30,000 lightning strikes were recorded between midnight on Friday and early Saturday. Eure, north of Paris, was worst hit with 4,326 strikes. Strong winds lashed Normandy – Rouen recorded a 76mph (123km)/h) gust that broke the 64mph record set in 2019. Hail affected several areas, leading to infrastructure and crop damage. There were further storms over central and north-west France on Saturday night, many with very large hailstones. The largest, found in Orly, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, measured 85mm. Several factors led to the severe weather. A key component was a phenomenon known as goutte froide, in which an isolated, upper-air cold pool detached from the overall circulation, creating significant atmospheric instability. A thalweg d'altitude (upper-air trough) provided the lift necessary by favouring air ascent. Warm, moist air flowed into the trough and was forced upwards. As the air rose, it started to cool and water vapour began to condense, forming clouds. As this clouds swelled, they created severe thunderstorms. As air flowed into the trough from every direction, it enabled supercells to develop by introducing the element of spin. Supercells are large-scale, highly organised storms with a rotating updraft that can sustain themselves for several hours and travel hundreds of miles – one of which swept through northern France on Friday. A recent heat dome over the country helped intensify the storms by providing a greater gradient between the surface and the upper air, and by bringing a greater source of moisture. A heat dome occurs when high pressure persists over a region, trapping warm air and allowing temperatures to rise several degrees above the seasonal average.
Fox News
7 days ago
- General
- Fox News
Reporter's Notebook: Recalling an American WWII hero who helped fight off Nazi forces during Normandy invasion
The 81st anniversary of the famous U.S.-led D-Day invasion of Normandy, France, was recently commemorated. Less well-known are the battles during the days and weeks that followed in Normandy, which helped secure the massive beachhead, so the allies could go on and defeat Nazi Germany in World II. One of those clashes was at a bridge over a small river near the town of Sainte-Mère-Église. Paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division landed near there early on the morning of June 6, 1944. They had to hold the position against Germans threatening American forces who came ashore at Utah beach, one of the main landing sites. One of those was Iowa-born 31-year-old U.S. Army Staff Sgt. William Owens. For three days, as his unit was cut down in combat from 45 to just 12 men, he bravely helped fight off the Germans. He fired from three different machine gun positions, threw hand grenades, commanded bazooka teams and moved from foxhole to foxhole, coordinating action. The actions of him and his men eventually knocked out four German tanks, killed 275 German soldiers and stopped the Nazis dead in their tracks. It was hailed by historians as a key battle of the Normandy invasion. On a recent day alongside the river in the now green and peaceful countryside, after years of research and lobbying at the Pentagon and in Congress, Owens was recognized for his valor in a ceremony during which his honors were upgraded to Distinguished Service Cross, the second most important medal the Army can bestow. Chris Donahue, the commanding general of the U.S. Army in Europe and Africa, told Fox News Owens' actions were "incredibly important. What Owens did is the exact model that all of us try to live up to." Owens died at the age of 54 in 1967. His youngest daughter, British-raised Susan Marrow, said, "I don't have words to describe how full my heart is and how much it means to me." His great-grandson, Harris Morales, was also proud to be there, saying, "without a doubt," Owens was a brave guy. As for the new recognition of Owens, he added, "It means everything, and I still don't believe it. It's still not real for me yet." This comes at a time the world remains in turmoil from Ukraine to the Mideast and beyond. While 81 years seems like a long time ago, the heroism and inventiveness displayed by Owens then is still seen as relevant today. "It is important," Morales said. "I don't think 81 years or any time is too long." Speaking from a military standpoint, Gen. Donahue noted, "We're in the middle of a transformation, and we're going to continue to do that so we live up to what they have done." As for lessons learned then, Owens' daughter had a simple answer, saying, "Do unto others as you would have them do onto you." Sometimes, as in the case of Staff Sgt. William Owens, the dangerous behavior of "others" means acting with the greatest and sometimes brutal gallantry.
Associated Press
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Medgar Evers' family fights efforts to strip his name from Navy vessel
A week after Pentagon leaders announced their intention to possibly rename the USNS Medgar Evers, christened for the World War II veteran and civil rights leader, his family urged the Department of Defense and the Navy to reverse their position. The ship is one of eight vessels named after activists – among them Cesar Chavez, Harvey Milk, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Harriet Tubman – that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wants to rebrand in a large offensive against 'wokeness' and diversity, equity and inclusion in the military to reestablish the 'warrior ethos.' This could be the second time Evers' name is erased. Although President Donald Trump called Medgar Evers a 'great American hero' at the 2017 opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, his name was removed last March from a site on the Arlington National Cemetery Website, which featured a section honoring Black Americans who fought in the nation's wars. 'Renaming the USNS Medgar Evers is not only malicious — it is despicable,' said Evers' daughter, Reena Evers-Everette. 'As my mother said, 'This is an injustice to a man who fought for his country both at home and abroad.'' Evers was among the continuing wave of U.S. soldiers who arrived on the beaches of Normandy after the D-Day invasion in 1944. He enlisted in the U.S. Army at 17 and served in the Red Ball Express, a convoy run largely by African-American soldiers that transported equipment from Normandy beaches to Allied forces in inland France. He earned several military medals for his service. After fighting the Nazis in World War II, he returned home to fight racism again in the form of Jim Crow, which barred Black Mississippians from restaurants, restrooms and voting booths. In 1954, he became the Mississippi NAACP's first field secretary and played a major part in the development of the organization. He led protests and boycotts for voting rights and desegregation of public schools, parks and Mississippi beaches. A target of white supremacists in Mississippi, he was murdered in 1963 by a member of the segregationist White Citizen's Council and Ku Klux Klan. In 2009, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus – a former Mississippi governor – announced the naming of a dry cargo ship after Evers. On Nov. 12, 2011, the USNS Medgar Evers was christened by Evers' widow, Myrlie Evers. 'I will not have to go to bed again wondering whether anyone will remember who Medgar Evers is,' she said at the ceremony. Mabus said he named the ship after Evers because the Lewis and Clark ships are named for pioneers and explorers, 'those who have pushed past boundaries, and Medgar Evers was just such a civil rights pioneer.' Since its launch, the ship has traveled around the world and has taken part in NATO exercises. By attempting to remove the names of activists who fought with courage and honor for the citizens of their country, the secretary of Defense sacrifices military values to a revisionist definition of patriotism, Evers-Everette said. 'The USNS Medgar Evers was not named to make a political statement,' she said. 'It was named to reflect a deeper truth: that freedom is not free — and some Americans have paid dearly for it.' ___ This story was originally published by Mississippi Today and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
The Guardian
11-06-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Chipboard and carpet: refugee cricket tournament brings a moment of happiness
Next week in Caen, at a baseball practice ground, on a pitch made out of two pieces of chipboard with some carpet stapled on top, a cricket tournament will unroll. Nine teams of refugees, mostly based in Normandy, will fight it out over two days in a series of round-robin T5 tape-ballgames. The battles will be fierce, the bowling often fast, with added jeopardy if the ball hits the not-very-well-disguised join between the two bits of chipboard. Chris Drew, a Guardian reader who lives locally, will umpire. 'You watch county cricket, and there is time,' he says via video call from France. 'Time is one thing that you don't have here. It is hit, it is whack, it is run, it is bowl – it is quite something. When they whack the ball, it stays whacked. There are no defensive shots. 'It's all about having a good time. People being together who want to be together because we love the game. They leave everything else at the door. I never ask anyone where they come from or what their status is – it's just about bringing a moment of happiness.' In 2023, the tournament's first year, it was sponsored by a kebab shop with free kebabs all round. This year Drew will make Welsh cakes and bara brith and his wife cucumber sandwiches. 'Somebody will bring a salad and somebody will bring a chicken – it's a communal thing.' The community spirit extends further. Teams do not yet know whether they will qualify for the knockout matches on the second day so players will bring tents, and many will camp in local gardens. 'It's all about mucking in,' says Drew. But there are limits. The bowlers will only run in from one end of the ground, so the houses lining one side of the boundary do not get peppered with unfamiliar flying objects. That the players have equipment at all is largely down to another group of volunteers. Project Front Foot (PFF) are a registered charity that collects spare kits from clubs and redistributes it to refugee groups. For the first 10 years of its inception, PFF mostly worked in the Dharavi slum in Mumbai, providing equipment for the children living there. They changed tack shortly before Covid to provide for those closer to home – to Germany, where cricket clubs sprung up overnight with the arrival of 1.5m refugees, to France, to Portugal, to Lebanon and to London. It is a labour of love for the project leader Vic Mills and his team. In September they collect from clubs who have something to donate (often because of a change of sponsor), take three or four days going through it all, number it for customs – who post-Brexit need everything individually labelled – and store it in volunteer Tim Gill's double garage until March. Then they unpack it all again, refill the spread sheet, stock the van with the right equipment for the right clubs, and get on the road in time for the beginning of the northern hemisphere cricket season. This year there were 48 bags and 13 boxes of clothing and equipment, plus a dozen bin liners of sportswear – over 2000 items. They included: 48 bats, 30 wicket sets, 86 pairs of pads, 123 pairs of batting gloves, 15 pairs of wicket keeping gloves, 35 helmets and 74 caps and sun hats. 'We've moved up to the largest Transit that the boys feel confident enough driving,' says Mills. 'Many of the county clubs have been extremely generous – with particular thanks to Steve Archer and the Yorkshire Cricket Board, and the Lancashire Foundation. 'These guys we're delivering to have nothing, they haven't got much money or practise kit, we're finding a home for equipment that would otherwise go to the charity shop or to landfill. With a lot of projects, very rarely does all the money allocated get to where it is needed; we can reassure people that we can find a home for pretty much everything.' On 4 April, the PFF van arrived in Caen and some of the bags were unloaded into another friendly garage, this time belonging to Drew, before a celebratory barbecue for players and volunteers at the house of Caen CC's president, Julia. '[PFF] provide us with bats, with pants, with helmets, with jock straps, with everything you could want,' says Drew. 'They, like Julia, who is absolutely fantastic, are heroes for providing something for the mental health of these lads.' Have they had any feedback about the tournament three years in? 'The teams want to come back, which I take as a positive sign. There's a demand, there's an enjoyment and we're growing. I'm not saying everything's perfect. It's like every cricket club. Not everybody loves everybody all the time. 'But if you come along to the events, you respect everyone else there. The fair play, the spirit of cricket, and that goes outside the bounds of the cricket pitch as well.' In the current wild and fragmented landscape, there is something comforting in the cricket's ability to still bring hope and community, as well as grasping around for yet more dollar bills. If you would like to donate to, or are a club with refugee cricketers who would like a kit donation from Project Front Foot please contact them on projectfrontfoot@ 'Our lives have been upended over this issue; we've lost our spot in the team, our contracts have been torn up, and we have been forced to leave the country' – Kashyap Prajapati telling Cricinfo that neither he, nor any of the other Oman players, have been paid their prize money for last year's men's T20 World Cup. The announcement of the shiny new Anderson-Tendulkar trophy to mark the Test series between England and India's men's teams has brought a mix of reactions. No one seemed too upset about the retirement of India's Anthony de Mello Trophy, named after a founding father of the BCCI, but the disappearance of the Pataudi Trophy caused some dismay. The Pataudi family, in particular the former Indian captains Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi and his son Mansur Ali Khan 'Tiger' Pataudi, have long links with both countries. Iftikhar Ali Khan was the only man to play cricket for England and India; Tiger was India's youngest captain, a wolfish fielder, and someone able to persuade his charges to put aside regional rivalries. As Sambit Bal wrote: 'he led Indian cricket out of its morass of defeatism and instilled in his fellow cricketers a belief that winning was possible.' Sign up to The Spin Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week's action after newsletter promotion So if you felt a pang of nostalgia while looking at a black and white photo of Tiger, I am with you. But the Pataudi family do not lack trinkets. They were the rulers of the Pataudi state until 1949 – and collected a privy purse for a while longer. Tiger was coached by Frank Woolley at a Hertfordshire prep school, packed off to Winchester, read Arabic and French at Balliol college, Oxford. Both Sachin Tendulkar and Jimmy Anderson came from more ordinary backgrounds. Anderson is England's greatest bowler; Tendulkar was a little genius – an Indian obsession who, for a few years, was the best batsman in the world. Already, though, both are fading into the distance. Anderson turns his arm over for Lancashire in the Blast; Tendulkar is long retired, even his heir Virat Kohli has stepped away from Test cricket. The Anderson-Tendulkar trophy keeps their names alive for the next generation – but only until they, like the Pataudis, become irrelevant and the trophy is renamed again. Either way, it would be nice to see the boards come up for a name for the upcoming contest between the women's teams too – and even better to have, as for the multi-format Ashes, a Test match nailed into the schedule. West Indies playing England presently takes the memory back to happier times for the tourists who, in 1984, played three one-day internationals and five Tests here. England were beaten 2–1 in the ODI series, and whitewashed 5–0 in the Test series with one of the most memorable moments coming at Old Trafford in the first ODI when Viv Richards scored 189 runs. By the end of the fifth Test the West Indies had won eight Tests in a row and would go on to set the then-record of 11 consecutive wins. Pat Cummins in riveting conversation with Donald McRae, taking in leading Australia against South Africa and not getting too big for his boots – but he plays a dead bat regarding that Jonny Bairstow dismissal. And here's Mr McRae chatting to South Africa's Temba Bavuma, on his path from a township childhood to the World Test Championship final. Martin Pegan on where that final will be won and lost. And Daniel Gallan on South Africa hoping to shake off their tag of 'chokers'. Amy Jones and Tammy Beaumont smashed England to ODI series victory over West Indies … … while Tom Banton sealed men's T20 glory for Harry Brook's side. Barney Ronay on modern man Jacob Bethell and old-school Shoaib Bashir. And Northants and Somerset are still in winning form in the T20 Blast – this and more in Gary Naylor's 99.94 cricket blog. … by writing to Tanya. To subscribe to The Spin, just visit this page and follow the instructions.
