Prince George's unexpected appearance offers glimpse of a King in training
'It's days like this that we should use to talk about things like this, so the younger generation can have some understanding. There aren't many of us left.'
Turning to Prince William, Littlefield added: 'You should be very proud'.
Prince George's appearance at the Buckingham Palace event was not expected.
The King, the Queen, the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, the Princess Royal and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence and the Duke of Kent were on the list to be there, along with the Prime Minister, the leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch, and a contingent of World War II veterans looked after by the Royal British Legion.
After Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis joined the Royal family to watch the military procession in front of the Palace, it was expected that the children would retire for the day. But Prince George, his father said, was 'very keen' to hear more.
'What was it like when you were coming in?', he asked Littlefield, who swam onto a beach during the Normandy landings under heavy shelling.
'Pretty awful,' came the reply.
The Princess of Wales introduced him to 99-year-old Charles Auborn, a gunner in the 90th City of London Regiment, saying: 'This is my son George, I was telling you about'.
Auborn showed him photographs of the M4 Sherman tanks he operated during the war, with George asking: 'Were they hard to operate? It must have been very tough with the weather'.
Dougie Hyde, 99, who joined the Merchant Navy in 1944 aged 18, said afterwards that the Prince — who had asked him if he had ever been shot at or saw a U-boat — was 'very polite and listened with interest'.
Laughing, the Princess told one veteran that her son — who likely has a future in the Armed Forces — would 'have to practise his shooting like you'.
The event was a small but significant step for the schoolboy Prince, with rare words in front of the cameras and an even rarer appearance outside the full family unit.
While the public is used to seeing the young Princes and Princess together at family events — Sandringham, carol concerts and the occasional special engagement — this was the first sign of the first-born Wales at centre stage.
Chaperoned closely by his parents, and heard to ask 'Papa' questions throughout the day, the Prince seemed to take it in his stride.
Not since the late Queen Elizabeth II was alive have three generations of the Royal family worked together at such an event — the King, his heir, and his heir's heir. It underlined the Royal family's commitment to the Armed Forces, and the thread of continuity they can provide.
With the late Queen and Prince Philip gone, the family's first-person experience of World War II service has faded. Their descendants are now determined to keep the nation's memories alive.
Prince William, who has fiercely guarded his children's right to privacy and normality, gave the best insight into why this, above all others, was the moment for Prince George to join him.
It was 'very important', he told veterans, for his son and all of the 'next generation' to hear their stories.
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NZ Herald
16-07-2025
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'It was unbelievable,' he said. Recently, 80 years after the men first crossed paths, their lives intersected once again – though this time in Los Angeles, in the United States where they both live. Their reunion was arranged by the USC Shoah Foundation, with the goal of bringing together a survivor and a liberator whose lives converged amid the horrors of the war. Organisations like the USC Shoah Foundation are racing against time to acquire as many first-hand accounts as possible. Andrew Roth (centre) and Jack Moran with Robert Williams, chief executive officer of the USC Shoah Foundation. Photo / USCSF 'We are at this tipping point where the history could be lost, or it could remain relevant for future generations,' said Robert Williams, chief executive officer of the USC Shoah Foundation. 'I knew we were at a moment where both the liberators and the survivors were passing very quickly.' For Williams, the reunion between Roth and Moran felt urgent. Williams' own great-uncle, Cliff, was also a Buchenwald liberator. 'No one who was touched by the Holocaust walks away unchanged,' he said. 'This is a subject that shaped the present world, and we need to remember it.' Williams arranged for Roth and Moran to meet on June 5. He knew their conversation – which was recorded – would be meaningful to both of them, as well as those who listened to it. 'We've seen how powerful it has been in the past when survivors and liberators had the chance to meet one another and share their common bond,' he said. Indeed, although Moran and Roth had entirely different experiences during World War II, they felt an immediate kinship and connection. 'We felt like brothers,' said Moran, who is 99. 'I don't cry easily,' Roth said, 'but my eyes welled up when I saw him.' Jack Moran when he was in the United States Armed Forces. Photo / Family photo via the Washington Post Both men recounted their stories. Roth was born in Penészlek – a small village in Hungary – in September 1927, to an orthodox Jewish family. He had five siblings, only one of whom survived the Holocaust. The Nazis deported Roth and his family to a ghetto in Romania in 1944, and not long afterwards, they were sent in a cattle car to the Auschwitz death camp. 'After what seemed like an eternity, the train stopped,' Roth recalled. 'It was full of people, many of them were dead already.' When Roth arrived at the camp, he lied about his age, claiming he was 18 (he was 16), making him eligible to work. Guards were separating people into two lines, and while his mother and siblings went in one line, Roth followed his uncle and cousin to the other. 'It was my instinct,' said Roth, who received a numbered tattoo on his left arm by the Nazis, as part of their system to track and manage prisoners at Auschwitz. His family was murdered in a gas chamber that same day. Roth was transported to a forced labour camp, Buna, a sub-camp of Auschwitz. He remained there for about nine months, until he was moved to Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. Roth remained there for about three months until he was liberated. 'It was hell on earth. We had no blankets, no mattresses, no heat,' Roth said. 'You had to be very resourceful to survive.' He remembers starving. 'I stole food from the German Shepherds and the garbage can,' Roth said. 'I didn't mind climbing over a fence, even if I was electrified. I did what I had to do.' Writer Elie Wiesel was in Roth's block at Buchenwald, and after the war, he went on to write Night, a memoir based on his survival story. 'We had similar experiences, so when I read his book, I read my story,' Roth said. 'All the survivors, we felt like we were brothers.' 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1News
26-06-2025
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'Close to home': Divers disable WWII mines in Auckland's Hauraki Gulf
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