Sunday 6th June was the 60th anniversary of the D-Day Landings at Normandy that play such an important part in the liberation of Europe and the ultimate ending of WWII.
The TV coverage in the UK has been very comprehensive and included other aspects of the war such as the Battle of Britain and the Blitz.
There was some element of repetition in the coverage but overall it was very sensitively done. The participation of the veterans in the programmes brought a lump to my throat. None of them portrayed themselves as heroes, just survivors. In fact they all referred to their fallen comrades as the heroes.
BBC D-Day Coverage
There was one program that was about the recovery of the wreckage of a crashed fighter in the middle of London (surprisingly only two planes crashed in London - the fighter and the bomber it attacked). The pilot of the fighter managed to jump out of his plane and he was interviewed on the show as they dug up the London street to pull out the engine from his Hurricane.
This pilot, Ray Holmes, was a teenager when the incident happened. He became separated from his squadron when an enemy bomber squirted oil on his windscreen (the oil was supposed to be lit as a primitive anti-fighter weapon - luckily it failed here). When the oil cleared he saw a damaged bomber heading for Buckingham Palace so he attacked it. Unfortunately he had run out of bullets, so he did 'what any one would have done'; he sliced the bombers tail off with his plane's own wing!
The pilot was not keen to be called a hero and was not particularly interested in expanding in the incident at all. He was however very happy to mention that he was rescued from his parachute, as it dangled from a building, by two beautiful girls. He was also very keen to be with the pretty female archaeologist on the dig. It was great to see he still had an eye for the girls.
Channel Five - Fighter Dig
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