# Queen snubbed by France for D-day/WW2 anniversary ceremonies



## CougarKing (27 May 2009)

The usual media beatup?

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/britain_royals_history_wwii



> Queen 'snubbed' over WWII anniversary: report
> Module body
> 
> Wed May 27, 8:35 AM
> ...


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## Fishbone Jones (27 May 2009)

:rofl: Man, the French just can't help coming up with more ways to make friends :


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## tango22a (27 May 2009)

Boy they sure can hold a grudge! Especially after their a$$es were saved by les maudit anglais, les maudit americains et les maudit canadiens during ww1 and ww2.

tango22a


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## Rifleman62 (27 May 2009)

And, how many Canadian WWII and/or D-Day Vets is VAC sponsoring for this event? How many parliamentarians/VAC staff are attending?


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## Larkvall (27 May 2009)

On a related note..... did Harper get an invitation?

Edit Yes he has been invited.


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## mariomike (27 May 2009)

The families of Lancaster ND994 have been treated with warm courtesy and hospitality every time we have visited Loches-sur-Ource, Aube, France. 
ND994 are the only non-French graves in the commune. 
http://servir-et-defendre.com/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=2421


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## daftandbarmy (28 May 2009)

Maybe the British and Canadians can bring her over the channel the same way we went to France in 1944? After all, we weren't invited then either but it didn't stop us from going... ;D


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## Yrys (1 Jun 2009)

Left Out of D-Day Events, Queen Elizabeth Is Fuming, NY Times







LONDON — Queen Elizabeth is not amused.

Indeed, she is decidedly displeased, angry even, that she was not invited to join President Obama 
and France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, next week at commemorations of the 65th anniversary of 
the D-Day landings in Normandy, according to reports published in Britain’s mass-circulation tabloid 
newspapers on Wednesday. Pointedly, Buckingham Palace did not deny the reports.

The queen, who is 83, is the only living head of state who served in uniform during World War II. As 
Elizabeth Windsor, service number 230873, she volunteered as a subaltern in the Women’s Auxiliary 
Territorial Service, training as a driver and a mechanic. Eventually, she drove military trucks in 
support roles in England.

While serving, she met the supreme Allied commander for the D-Day landings, Gen. Dwight D. 
Eisenhower, and developed a fondness for him, according to several biographies. This prompted 
Queen Elizabeth, who was crowned in June 1953, to say in later years that he was the American 
president with whom she felt most at ease.

But on June 6, when Mr. Obama and Mr. Sarkozy attend commemorations at the iconic locations 
associated with the American D-Day assault — Utah Beach, the town of Ste.-Mère-Église, where 
the first United States paratroopers landed, and the American war cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer 
— the highest-ranking British representative will be Prime Minister Gordon Brown. His main role 
will be at ceremonies at the town of Arromanches, near the beaches where British troops landed.

How the queen came to be excluded has become entangled in a thicket of diplomatic missteps, or 
misunderstandings, depending on whether the account is given in London or Paris. The French have 
said officially that they regard the commemorations in the American sector of the landings as 
“primarily a Franco-American ceremony,” and that it was up to the British to decide who should 
represent Britain — in other words, that Mr. Brown was at fault for not seeking an invitation for 
the queen.

The French have also said the Brown government was slow to accept that the ceremonies merited 
more than a modest British involvement, since British policy had been to give full-scale government 
backing only to commemorations at decade-long intervals.

The last of those was the 60th anniversary in 2004, when the queen joined President George W. Bush 
in the Normandy observances. British veterans’ groups demanded more backing for this year’s 
ceremonies on the grounds that only a handful of soldiers who fought in Normandy were likely to be 
alive at the 70th anniversary in 2014.

In Britain, commentators have suggested that Mr. Sarkozy did not want to share the telegenic moment 
when he hosts Mr. Obama. This was all the more so, the British commentators have said, because the 
queen’s presence might risk turning the occasion into a celebration of the Anglo-American alliance, 
whose troops carried out the landings, losing about 37,000 men in the battle for Normandy.

When accounts of the dispute made the headlines of the British tabloids on Wednesday, the diplomatic 
gloves came off, at least a bit. “Palace fury at D-Day snub to the queen,” roared The Daily Mail, the 
first time in days that its front-page splash has been on something besides the furor over 
parliamentarians’ expenses. A Buckingham Palace spokesman declined to comment beyond a terse 
statement that “no invitation has been issued as yet to any member of the royal family.”

The tabloids quoted anonymous palace officials as saying the Brown government dropped the ball, 
possibly because of reported strains between Mr. Brown and the queen. Among other issues, the queen 
is said to have cooled on Mr. Brown because of his habit of appearing late for their weekly audiences. 
The Daily Mail quoted one “senior palace official” as saying that the palace had made clear to the 
government that the queen would have liked to have gone to Normandy.

“We have gone through all the normal channels and had conversation after conversation, but received 
no feedback,” the official said. “It is very frustrating.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

*Correction*: 
An article on Thursday about Queen Elizabeth’s reported displeasure over not being invited to next week’s 
65th anniversary celebrations of the D-Day Allied invasion referred incorrectly to the role of French 
troops in the landings. While their numbers were relatively few, they did participate; it was not an event
in which they “played no part.” (A 177-man unit of French marines led by Commandant Philippe Kieffer,
informally known as the Kieffer Commando, landed on Sword Beach on the morning of June 6, 1944, 
and 35 French paratroopers were airdropped in Brittany the same day, with hundreds more airdropped 
in following days.)

Queen 'welcome at D-Day service', BBC News


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## CougarKing (1 Jun 2009)

How ironic: the White House is now the one trying to secure a D-Day anniversary ceremony invite for Her Majesty.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/090601/usa/us_france_military_dday_anniversary_queen



> *White House working on D-Day invite for Queen*
> 33 minutes ago
> 
> WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House said Monday it was working with organizers of next weekend's D-Day 65th anniversary commemorations to secure an invitation for Queen Elizabeth II.
> ...


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## Yrys (1 Jun 2009)

Same subject as last post :

White House Seeks a Proper Invitation for the Queen






The Obama administration is working with their French counterparts to make sure that Britain’s 
Queen Elizabeth — reportedly miffed, according to the British Press, at not being invited to the 
D-Day anniversary festivities in Normandy this weekend — gets a formal invitation.

Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said on Monday that President Obama thinks the 
queen should be present at the event on Saturday. “We are working with those involved to see if 
we can make that happen,” Mr. Gibbs said. Mr. Gibbs’s comments came after Buckingham Palace 
pointedly noted last week that the queen didn’t get an invite, an omission which has had the British 
press fuming. Mr. Obama is attending the event (French President Nicolas Sarkozy invited him two 
months ago) as is British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Mr. Sarkozy has said that the queen is 
welcome to come to the ceremony, but Obama administration officials say that they would like to 
see her receive a formal invitation.

Driving home that point, Mr. Gibbs joked at the end of his daily briefing with reporters Monday: 
“Will you — will you — will you please pass that directly to the queen for me?”


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## Yrys (3 Jun 2009)

Charles invited to D-Day events






Prince Charles is to attend D-Day commemorations in Normandy at the weekend, Clarence House has 
confirmed. The prince was invited by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The White House had stepped into the row about why the Queen was not attending, after Buckingham 
Palace insisted she had not been invited. It is understood the prince will attend at least one main event 
alongside US President Barack Obama, Mr Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. They will 
gather at the Normandy American Cemetery, by Omaha Beach - code name for one of the main landing 
points of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France during WWII.

Some British veterans, who took part in the 1944 Normandy landings that helped to defeat Hitler's 
Germany, will also play a part in a number of events planned for 6 June.

*Guest list*

It is understood the Prince of Wales spoke to the Queen about the issue, and they decided it was 
appropriate he should attend. The office invitation was received on Tuesday via the French ambassador 
in London. It is not yet known whether Charles will be accompanied in France by the Duchess of Cornwall.

Amid controversy over the handling of the guest list, the British and French governments had been 
discussing the possibility that a Royal Family member would attend the commemorations. The French 
government wanted to counter the perceptions that President Sarkozy intended the focus to be on him 
and President Obama, and that Downing Street had not pushed for the Queen to be invited, said the 
BBC's diplomatic correspondent James Robbins. He said Mr Obama was only invited to the commemorations 
because plans for him to visit the beaches as part of his European tour in April were squeezed out of an 
overcrowded programme.

Meanwhile prime minister Gordon Brown was invited to represent the UK at the event. The changing plans 
caused "big problems", said our correspondent, with Downing Street having to defend the prime minister's 
role. His spokesman said: "We have been consulting the Palace at every stage and they have been content 
with arrangements."

Clarence House said discussions had been going on between the French and the British before the US became
involved. They said the fact that the White House had stepped in to the row shortly before Prince Charles 
received his invitation, was "coincidence", said the BBC's June Kelly.

Hundreds of British veterans will hold their main memorial event at the Arromanches landing beaches, where 
thousands of troops came ashore on 6 June 1944, and during the following days. There will also be a Royal 
British Legion Service of Remembrance at Bayeux Cathedral.

The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Prince of Wales all attended commemoration events in France for 
the 60th anniversary of the invasion, which was a strategic turning point in the war.


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## Yrys (4 Jun 2009)

Royal D-Day row reveals split over WWII roles, MSNBC
Britain, France and the U.S. have always seen the war rather differently

LONDON - Who won the war?

A diplomatic tiff over Queen Elizabeth II's omission from the guest list for this week's D-Day 
commemorations has reopened a divide over who should share credit for the World War II 
defeat of Nazi Germany.

Britons are grumbling that the nation does not get its due — either from its wartime ally, 
the United States, or from the French whom it helped to liberate.Fatality estimates for the 
Allied forces vary, but range from 2,500 to more than 5,000 dead on D-Day.

Agnes Poirier, a London-based French political commentator, said the attempt to recast D-Day 
commemorations as a Franco-American affair "is not only the rewriting of history, it's lunacy."
"Many French people are really embarrassed about this," she said.


*'And are they grateful?'*

Britain, France and the United States have always seen the war rather differently. In The Guardian 
newspaper, humorist Simon Hoggart summed up the British view — with tongue only slightly in 
cheek — as "the Americans took their own good time to join us (fighting Hitler), but when they did, 
between us we rescued the useless French. And are they grateful? Don't be silly."

Some blame Hollywood for distorting popular perceptions of the war. While 1962 D-Day epic "The 
Longest Day" had a multinational cast, there are few Brits in Steven Spielberg's 1998 film "Saving 
Private Ryan" or the 2001 TV series "Band of Brothers," both of which dramatized the Normandy 
campaign from an American point of view.

*'Misunderstandings'*

As far back as 1945, the Errol Flynn film "Operation Burma" — which recast the liberation of Burma 
as an American, rather than British, feat — sparked angry demonstrations in Britain. The movie was 
pulled from screens after only a few days.

Caddick-Adams said the Americans have always been better at martial myth-making than the British.
"During the Normandy campaign, there were about 10 American photographers for every British one," 
he said. "So most of the footage of the campaign features American soldiers, rarely British."

Historian Antony Beevor, author of "D-Day: The Battle for Normandy," said the conflicting views began 
while the war was still raging. "There have been misunderstandings," he said. "One was that (British 
commander) Field Marshal (Bernard) Montgomery's attempts to take so much of the credit exasperated 
the Americans. As a result the Americans tended to downplay the British contribution."

*Global balance of power*

The differing views also reflected a shifting global balance of power. The war all but bankrupted Britain, 
hastening the breakup of its empire and its decline as a world force. "The British were very sensitive at 
the time," Beevor said. "They knew their power was diminishing very rapidly, while American power was 
increasing rapidly." As for who won the war, many historians think it was neither Britain nor the U.S., 
but the Soviet Union, who played the decisive role.

"The British and the Americans only killed one in five Germans that were killed on the battlefield," said 
Andrew Roberts, author of the World War II history "The Storm of War." "Four out of every five German 
deaths took place on the eastern front. Us arguing among ourselves over the glories of D-Day is squabbling over the scraps."


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## Kat Stevens (4 Jun 2009)

I guess I'm missing the point.  If body counts are a gauge of winning the war, how many Japanese did the Soviets kill?  Not the same theatre, but definitely the same war, it all goes to the total score.


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## Old Sweat (4 Jun 2009)

And note who was left out of the story posted by Yrys. Why does this not surprise me?


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## Yrys (4 Jun 2009)

Old Sweat said:
			
		

> And note who was left out of the story posted by Yrys. Why does this not surprise me?



Who told them recently : "We were there too, you know !" ?

Giving the controversy over the non-onvitation of the Queen, 
and the size of their memory, some things have surely slips 
theirs minds...

But since Mr. Sarkozy seems to liked GG Jean, I'm sure a phone 
call could serve as a tap on the shoulder...

(One of theirs website newspapers seem to talk about everything except D-Day...
http://www.lemonde.fr )


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## mariomike (4 Jun 2009)

Yrys said:
			
		

> "Four out of every five German deaths took place on the eastern front. "



Max Hastings, author of "Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy" pointed out that "the bombers enabled the western Allies to delay agressively, while Russia fought out the huge battles that broke the Wehrmacht, that caused Hitler by June 1944 to deploy 156 divisions in the East against 50 in France and the Low Countries."


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## tango22a (4 Jun 2009)

Do all you historians not remember that Le Grand Charles (de Gaulle) the Cross of Lorraine walked across the English Channel, without wetting his shoes,and walked ashore in Normandy on 6June44, slaying distraught Germans and destroying their beach fortifications with only the fierceness of his gaze!

A little sarcasm, but I think it makes my point.

Cheers,

tango22a

P.S,: Sorry for a bit of a run-on sentence...I think faster than I type.


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## tango22a (5 Jun 2009)

The part I always liked (j/k) about de Gaulle was the fact that after les Allies had pulled his nuts away from the Allemands blow-torch he had the balls to come to Canada and say "vive Quebec Libre!" And there's always the screwing he put to NATO/OTAN.

Cheers,

tango22a


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## The AmericansDaughter (6 Jun 2009)

I see the cheese-eating surrender monkeys have found yet another way to win friends and influence people.  God Save the Queen.


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## mariomike (6 Jun 2009)

The AmericansDaughter said:
			
		

> the cheese-eating surrender monkeys



I get a laugh from "The Simpsons". But, I don't rely on them for my history lessons. Their same FOX network brought us "Red Eye". Which was described by the Canadian government as "despicable" and "disgusting" for their insulting comments about Canada's military sacrifice.
Those are the same two words I would apply to that quote.


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## The AmericansDaughter (6 Jun 2009)

I don't watch The Simpsons, or Fox for that matter, so I am a bit lost in following your reply.  Anyway, The Queen was snubbed and that is all I was getting at.   iper:


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## mariomike (6 Jun 2009)

The AmericansDaughter said:
			
		

> I don't watch The Simpsons, or Fox for that matter, so I am a bit lost in following your reply.



The term you used originated on "The Simpsons".
The Simpsons are produced by The FOX Network.
The FOX Network produces "The Red Eye".
If you read, watch, or listen to Canadian news, you will know about the indignation that show caused in Canada.
It was much discussed here on Milnet.


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## Old Sweat (6 Jun 2009)

Actually The simpsons and Red Eye are on two different channels. The main Fox network airs the Simpsons which may be seen on local stations while Fox News Channel which is a rival of CNN is a cable/satellite broadcaster. The Simpsons is clever satire which has aired in prime time for about two decades, while Red Eye is just a bunch of loosers winging at 0300 Eastern. Two very different kettles of fish - one is fish chowder and the other is chum.


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## LineJumper (6 Jun 2009)

Mmmmmm Chum...... What does it matter in the end? The brit pm got an invite.


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