Posted on 05/30/2004 8:05:18 PM PDT by blam
Planes that breach D-Day air space 'will be shot down'
By Ben Fenton in Arromanches
(Filed: 31/05/2004)
Private pilots who stray into Normandy air space during the 60th anniversary of D-Day next weekend will be shot down, French officials said yesterday.
With at least 16 heads of state, including the Queen and President George W Bush, attending the ceremonies, organisers are guarding particularly against an al-Qa'eda attack from the air.
French troops near the town of Arromanches
It is one of the biggest security exercises in Europe since the war. An enormous network of radar equipment has been stretched between Deauville and Cherbourg, with Awacs early warning aircraft already in the skies.
The aircraft will be joined this week by small, remote-controlled drones. Advanced Crotale anti-aircraft missiles have been primed and two squadrons of Mirage 2000 fighters are stationed nearby.
The French ministry of defence has spared no expense. It has established a temporary air base at Carpiquet, outside the city of Caen, as the hub of its defences.
There, more than 800 soldiers will maintain round-the-clock surveillance, backed by more than 50 military helicopters.
A spokesman for the 120-acre camp said: "The dangers are multiple, from a hijacked airliner being crashed into the stands at the main international ceremony at Arromanches to a tiny bomb being detonated remotely. But we are stretching an impenetrable fabric of protection above Normandy."
At sea, fishermen and pleasure craft have been banned from the Seine Bay that stretches along the beaches which were codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword on June 6, 1944.
A French carrier, Charles de Gaulle, and an American carrier, George Washington, will be patrolling the bay, which will also be swept for mines. There are unconfirmed reports that submarines will be used in the security precautions.
On land, more than 9,000 French troops are arriving this week, supplementing the 6,300 gendarmes and 2,300 police officers already on duty.
The focus of all this protection will be a series of events marking the contribution of the allied nations to the Normandy landings, a theme that will be brought together at an international ceremony on cliffs above the small seaside town of Arromanches next Sunday.
There the heads of state will watch President Jacques Chirac symbolically award the French Legion d'Honneur to 10 veterans of each of the 14 countries that took part. For the first time, Germany will be represented - by Chancellor Gerhard Schroder.
Most people believe that this will be the last big commemoration of D-Day. The security operation will be twice the size of that for the last major ceremony in 1994 and is graphically illustrated at Arromanches.
The town's residents have been told that they must either stay indoors throughout next Sunday or leave the area. Even Patrick Jardin, the mayor, one of the few local people invited to the international ceremony, will have to travel by bus to Caen, 45 minutes' drive away, and board a special bus to return to Arromanches that afternoon.
I'm hoping just long enough for the ceremony.
I don't think it is quite that large for most trips, more like hundreds but I expect his security detail for this trip will have many more than usual. I think he arrives in France from Rome. Italy is commemorating the 60th anniversay of their liberation, too. Rome is expecting demonstrations. The G8 Summit at Sea Island Georgia is June 8-10 so he probably won't stay in France the night of the 6th. I'll be relieved when he is back home. I don't trust the French either.
That struck me too, but then I figured that most of the veterans will have passed on by the 75th. Suppose it happens to all war remembrances. It doesn't lessen the veterans' accomplishments, though I'm sure the French will soon forget.
The soldiers in the picture look as though they are ready to run.
OK.
So next year [61st anniversary], we quietly dig up the bodies, ship them home, and let europe go its own way.
We fear for him because we learned just how duplicitous some of our trusted "Allies" had been and why. He forced them to show their hands and they hate him for it. "Old Europe" would be happy not to have to deal with him at all.
Go away, or I shall taunt you a second time. You silly pizza delivery types.
LOL!!!
That's it, all right. We already only have about 1/4 of the 16 million WWII vets still alive, and they're dying at the rate of 1100 per day.
BUMP
My son just re-enlisted in the Navy. A few months ago, he ended his first tour on the USS George Washington. He served with VF-11, an F-14 squadron.
What scares me is that all this French equipment and French security is......................
well, it is French.
I wonder if the producers of the old comedy show "F-Troop" took a veiled slap at the French with that title.
The last time he went to France he refused to sleep there. One hopes he does the same this time.
What an irony!!! More troops and weaponry backup here than it took to defeat the Germans on that spot!
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