I have to add my tuppence to this thread....when I heard that the Queen had not been invited to the event, I was also disgusted, but in all honesty, is any UK member suprised with Gormless Clown and his flunkies at the helm?
And to all the haters, many of us lost relatives during WWII (two of my Great Uncles), my father escaped death whilst in his crib, with a firebomb dropped by the Luftwaffe being caught in a tree unexploded above his room. My friend Rose, who is 79 years old, recalls watching the dogfights between the RAF and the Luftwaffe over the Weald, and remembers when a bomb landed in our village school playground.
And as for the war being lost on the Eastern front....(arguably Barbarossa was a huge mistake).....that's questionable, please remember that allied bombing campaigns at this time were devastating the industrial heartlands of the Reich, and of course as soon as the Allied forces obtained their beachheads....losing the dream of the 'Third Reich' was a done deal.
Who knows how events would have turned if Hitler had focused his war in the East only?
One thing is for sure, after having endured terror bombing for years, after being mown down on the beaches of Normandy....British forces (and American, Canadian etc...) certainly didn't rape, burn and pillage on their way to the Reich Capital as the Russians did.
People feel strongly about WWII, even now, especially in Europe. It's hardly surprising knowing that if events had turned a different direction, we could have been living the horror of Hitler's National Socialism.
Anyone who poo-poo's those of us who feel strongly about remembrance, I suggest you visit Amsterdam, go take a wander through Anne Frank's annexed living quarters.....unless you are emotionally barren, you cannot leave this place unmoved or with no sense of just how powerful and important it is to never forget the dreadful evil of inhumanity. And even worse, to turn a blind eye, to overlook it, to be fear's concubine.
Britain is partly responsible for the liberation of millions of Human Beings from the shadow of fear during WWII. No one can take that away, not even the French Government. If we are represented, or not, the truth and the facts remain.
