D-Day : 60th Anniversary

[Originally Posted on June 6th 2004]


There was an article last Wednesday found in the Star Newspaper on how ignorant most young Britons are when it comes to D-Day. Highly surprising, since Great Britain took part in the invasion.

Below is the aforementioned article :-

LONDON: Almost three-quarters of young Britons are so ignorant about D-Day that they have no idea what it was, where it happened and who was involved, according to a newspaper poll published yesterday.

Of 1,000 people under-25 questioned by the Daily Mirror just ahead of the campaign's 60th anniversary, 73% were unable to answer these three questions, the paper said.

Only six per cent correctly answered all seven D-Day questions posed by the paper: What it was, when it took place, where it happened, the leaders at the time of Britain, the United States and Germany, and in which war it occured.

The paper printed a selection of wrong answers given by respondents, including a 20-year-old student who was asked for the date of D-Day: "I'm sure it happened in the 1960s. The precise year would be 1962, I think," she said.

Another 20-year-old answered: "Was it Tony Blair?" when asked to name the British prime minister at the time.

The poll revealed "an astonishing level of ignorance about D-Day," the Daily Mirror said in an editorial column.

"In this country we pay lip service to our nation's great history, yet do we really respect it enough?" it asked - AFP