bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

A French village where British parachutists fought an epic battle during the D-Day landings is in uproar after learning Prince Charles will not be visiting for next month's 70th anniversary commemorations.
Children in the Normandy village of Merville have spent weeks learning the words to God Save the Queen in anticipation of a visit by the heir to the British throne.
Local officials expected Charles, who is colonel-in-chief of Britain's legendary Parachute Regiment, to attend a ceremony in the village on June 5 and had splashed out tens of thousands of euros on preparations for a royal visit which will not take place.
They say they only learned that Charles was not coming when his finalised programme was announced last week.
A spokeswoman for the prince denied a visit to the village had been organised then abruptly cancelled.
"[The visit] was never formally on the programme," she said, stressing the prince had a packed programme of veterans' events scheduled for the eve of the 70th anniversary of the landings.
Merville mayor Olivier Paz is so outraged by the perceived snub that he plans to travel to London today to deliver a letter of protest to Clarence House, the prince's London residence.
"We have been working for weeks to welcome Prince Charles," Paz said. "I must admit I blew a fuse when I learned he was not coming."
The letter, which has been signed by 1,000 people, expresses the dismay felt in a village which features on the Parachute Regiment's "Battle Honours" - the list of battle sites emblazoned on the regiment's colours.
It notes that Charles will visit a number of other battle sites in the area but not Merville, leaving it as the only Battle Honour site of the regiment not to have been visited by its colonel-in-chief. "As a result, the last survivors of the ninth battalion, those who distinguished themselves on D-Day with their selflessness and pugnacity, will never have the honour of a visit by their colonel-in-chief," Paz writes in the letter.
"We cannot believe it and we want to inform you of our distress and great sadness."
Merville was targeted on D-Day because it was the site of a major German gun battery. The British paras succeeded in putting it out of action, but at a huge cost.
"Out of 700 men only 75 emerged alive after the assault," Paz said.


French village up in arms over D-Day 'snub' by Prince Charles

Prince Charles will visit several French battle sites. Photo: AFP

News

World

A French village where British parachutists fought an epic battle during the D-Day landings is in uproar after learning Prince Charles will not be visiting for next month's 70th anniversary commemorations.
