Posted on 01/01/2004 10:48:19 AM PST by nypokerface
PARIS (AFP) - France has invited Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of D-Day in an unprecedented gesture to France's old enemy and present-day close partner, it was announced in Paris.
It was the first time a German leader had been invited to attend D-Day celebrations. No invitation was extended to former chancellor Helmut Kohl for the 50th anniversary 10 years ago, an omission that caused upset in Germany.
A government spokesman in Berlin confirmed Schroeder had accepted the invitation just before Christmas from French President Jacques Chirac to attend the commemoration of the 1944 Allied landings on the French Normandy coast.
"(Schroeder) was very pleased to receive the invitation, has accepted, and will participate in the ceremonies," the German spokesman told AFP Thursday.
Chirac's office in Paris said France had issued invitations to several governments whose countries were involved in the campaign to liberate France from Nazi German occupation.
Since World War II, France and Germany have become close partners and are considered the main driving forces of European integration -- a project designed partly to put an end once and for all to their traditional enmity.
Cooperation has advanced to the extent of German and French troops forming a Eurocorps. German troops have even paraded alongside French units on the Champs Elysees in Paris to mark France's annual Bastille Day on July 14.
Chancellor Kohl and Chirac's predecessor, Francois Mitterrand, were close allies and friends who sought to put to rest a misunderstanding ahead of the 1994 D-Day 50th anniversary.
Kohl denied he wished to be invited to attend, while Mitterrand confirmed that Kohl had never expressed such a desire.
The two announced instead that they would attend a Franco-German youth festival in the German university town of Heidelberg.
Mitterrand also underlined the close ties by announcing that German troops would march in the July 14 parade. Kohl hailed this "inspiration for a future Europe".
The Allied forces disembarked on France's Channel coast in Normandy on June 6, 1944, and formed bridgheads as the first step to liberating France from four years of German occupation.
Ghosts from the past still haunt today's reconcilaition.
Authorities in southwestern France last month exhumed for reburial the remains of 17 German soldiers shot dead by French resistance fighters in a revenge attack during World War II.
The Germans were killed in September 1944, after the liberation of the region, in reprisal for the execution of 17 villagers in the Dordogne region.
LOL. good point.
Help me out here, my history is a bit hazy. Just how many ships did France provide on D-Day? And I forget which beach the French-only troops attacked and took?
The first I remember hearing of French troops after June 5, 1944 was when the "real" allies kicked the Germans the hell outta Paris, then politely stepped aside and let the Free Frenchers strut in while waving their silk hankies and carrying their pink parasols.
"As the commandos touched down on Sword, Lord Lovat's piper, William Millin, plunged off his landing craft into water up to his armpits. He could see smoke piling up from the beach ahead and hear the crump of exploding mortar shells. As Millin floundered toward the shore, Lovat shouted at him, "Give us 'Highland Laddie', man!" Waist-deep in the water, Millin put the mouthpiece to his lips and splashed on through the surf, the pipes keening crazily. At the water's edge, oblivious to the gunfire, he halted and, parading up and down along the beach, piped the commandos ashore. The men streamed past him, and mingling with the whine of bullets and the screams of shells came the wild skirl of the pipes as Millin now played 'The Road to the Isles.' "That's the stuff, Jock," yelled a commando. Said another, "Get down, you mad bugger!"
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