Posted on 05/28/2009 9:12:50 AM PDT by reaganaut1
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I apologize, I was just being bitterly sarcastic.
I apologize, I was just being bitterly sarcastic.
I apologize, I was just being bitterly sarcastic.
Look, E’s parents stayed in London during the bombings to calm the people...and they did...the thought that O and Sarkozy didn’t invite her when sooooooo many of her citizens died, well, that shows STUPIDITY AND LOW CLASS!
President Squarepants at work again.
Did his teleprompter blow over?
I have to go with my American view of Monarchists on this, my dead American ancestors would require it even though the British "royalty" were so "heroic" that they lived in Britain during the war. By the way France lost far more people than Great Britain or the United States did in WWII.
They were wrong to do this, but I have no real admiration for QEII. She knighted Elton John. Enough said.
Hey, cmon - he gave some nice CD’s and returned the bust of that old dead white guy who had something with winning the war. He is Kenyan trash and will always be so.
Sorry, I lived in London and I still love the Queen.
she approves of Socialism, power inherited by bloodline, and a society choked by class structure.
Not easy to see how somebody could 'approve' of all three of those things simultaneously without standing on her head - and she's getting a bit old for that.
Don’t know exactly.. but those who did were the cream of the French crop. de Gaulle was leading from the back I understand..until the Americans let him take Paris and his 1st Armoured Division parade down the Paris main drag with him marching at their head like a 7ft tosser.
If ever a man was a drag on the Allied war effort it was de Gaulle!! As was proved later he had no love for the USA or the UK.
:) Yup.
Thank you for that information.
no apology needed - I knew what you were saying - some other person might not though - Im guilty of forgetting tags as well
My ancestors fought with George Washington in Valley Forge, too, but I still find O a source of embarrassment, if not outright fear, and I object to his ill mannered condoning of Queen Elizabeth’s absence in this commemorative conflab. She certainly has every right to be there.
OBummer blows it again. What a buffoon.
Shameful.
French troops fought bravely on D-Day.
French Commandos stormed ashore at Ouistreham and battered the Germans there(immortalised in The Longest Day). French Naval ships also supported the landings.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.