Events marking WW2 landings partly axed due to weather

Commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of the Allied landings in the south of France have been partly cancelled due to the threat of thunderstorms.

French President Emmanuel Macron was due to hold a reception aboard the amphibious helicopter carrier Dixmude, but that had to be called off.

A scheduled re-enactment of the landings in Toulon was also axed, but six African leaders joined President Macron for a ceremony at the national cemetery at Boulouris-sur-Mer to remember the operation.

The landings in Provence played a key role in the liberation of France during World War Two, allowing Allied forces to reclaim most of southern France.

Sometimes referred to as the forgotten D-Day, they occurred shortly after the much better-known landings in Normandy.

The Elysée Palace said shortly before the commemorations were due to start that the reception on the Dixmude would no longer take place.

Meanwhile, the local authority for the Var region said in a statement that the re-enactments on the Lido beach at Mourillon had been cancelled due to “the unfavourable weather conditions and the significant risk of storms”.

Violent storms and heavy rains had been forecast for the region, with winds of up to 140km/h (87mph).

The Provence landings began when some 100,000 American, British and Canadian troops landed on the beaches of the French Riviera on 15 August 1944.

They were followed by 250,000 soldiers recruited largely from the French colonies in north Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.

However, it has taken decades to highlight the role they played during commemorations of the military operation.

“France had forgotten us, but they’re making up for lost time,” said Oumar Dieme, a former Senegalese infantryman who attended the ceremony, according to news agency AFP.

Mr Macron told the ceremony at Boulouris-sur-Mer, where hundreds of soldiers were buried, that the men who took part in the landings fought for “the right to self-determination, their sovereignty, their territorial integrity”.

He paid tribute to the crucial role played by African soldiers, who were often recruited by force and came from what are now Cameroon, Central African Republic, Gabon, Togo, Morocco and Niger.

“They all accomplished, that day and those that followed, a work of which they knew the immense perils. And yet they did it with brave audacity and irrefutable strength.”

The French president was joined by Paul Biya of Cameroon and Faustin-Archange Touadera of the Central African Republic and several other leaders.

In an address, Mr Biya said: “There would have been no Allied victory without the contribution of other peoples, without foreigners.”

He added: “These valiant soldiers from West Africa, Equatorial Africa, Madagascar or the Indian Ocean distinguished themselves magnificently.

“They paid a very heavy price for victory. They were exemplary fighters, often heirs to immemorial war traditions, admirable for their courage, daring and loyalty.”

The soldiers of the Provence landings – dubbed Operation Dragoon – played a key role in capturing the key Mediterranean ports of Marseille and Toulon and increased pressure on Nazi forces by opening up a new front.