D-Day: ‘An act of love saved my grandpop’ – how a framed photo of veteran’s wife saved his life
When my grandfather, Charles ‘Charlie’ Truman, reached the shores of Normandy on 6 June 1944 as part of 150,000 Allied troops seeking to free France – and the rest of Western Europe – of the Nazis, he didn’t think he would ever be seeing his pregnant wife again.
But a decision he made the night before ended up saving his life.
Then 26, he was among the first of 150,000 Allied troops landing on Sword Beach for Operation Overlord, the historic invasion of northern France which would end up marking the beginning of the end of World War Two.
Wounded British troops at Sword Beach, June 6, 1944 Pic: AP/British Navy
On the night before the invasion and as troops descended into the landing craft, they were ordered to leave their bags behind.
My grandpop, as I called him, was never really one to disobey but faced by the daunting uncertainty of what kind of fate awaited him, he decided to keep one item: a silver frame with a picture of his wife Joyce.
She was five months pregnant with their first daughter – my aunt.
Charlie at the time was 26 and an infantryman
At dawn, a few hours after making that impulsive decision, he was running hard and fast, pushing inland after landing on the Normandy beach.
Their objective was a German bunker complex codenamed Hillman.
He ran ahead of his company, unaware of the size of the Hillman fortress ahead of him – an aerial photo provided by intelligence just days before D-Day showed the fortification covered in vegetation, thus rendering the real scale of it invisible.
My granddad was shot twice as he ran towards a German bunker complex
Underground, 60 German soldiers were inside the network of bunkers.
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Charlie and his comrades from A Company came under heavy machine gun fire, as they advanced with fixed bayonets.
The troops were aiming for a bunker complex codenamed Hillman
Charlie was spotted by German gunners and shot down by enemy fire.
One bullet hit Charles in the lungs and knocked him down. A second round came in immediately, this time aimed at his chest.
That second bullet hit what became my grandfather’s personal body armour – that silver photo frame – and deflected through his arm.
He patched himself up with the single dressing he had, and started to crawl back down towards the beach.
Losing a dangerous amount of blood, he had to stop. Help came when fellow troops found him and carried him back where he awaited the medic boats, with shrapnel falling all around the casualties along the shoreline.
Charlie took his sweetheart with him for Operation Overlord
Unlike so many of his comrades that day, Charlie made it back to England. He spent 16 weeks in chest units all over the country.
A brief telegram was sent to my pregnant grandmother explaining her husband was in a critical condition.
She made her way down alone to the south coast to find him, not knowing what condition he was in.
It had been bad – at one point he was removed from resuscitation and read his last rites, but he pulled through.
My grandfather, like so many other veterans who survived that D-Day, didn’t repeat the stories very often.
I know it troubled him for years. But when he did, he always said that a combination of luck and love had saved him in those moments.
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It’s hard to pick out the most memorable survival stories from the veterans of D-Day, especially when it becomes ingrained within your own family’s history.
My grandfather, Charles ‘Charlie’ Truman was born and raised in Lincolnshire. He started working from seven years old, making deliveries for the family’s butcher shop, whilst learning the trade along the way.
He left school at 14 and became a full time butcher, until the outbreak of war in 1939.
Sophie Garratt’s D-Day granddad’s running team
The same year, he joined the Suffolk Regiment (now Royal Anglian Regiment), and became the runner for his company.
Runners were expected to carry out their duties swiftly. As Charlie had always excelled at cross-country, he was a natural for this job.
As a child he would let me run my fingers on the bullet wounds, never really wanting to go into the fear and horror he would have seen that day.
He lost several friends, and was so close to death himself, spared only by an act of love.
Charlie Truman died in December 2011.
Anthony Joshua missed out on the chance to become a three-time heavyweight world champion after he was stopped by British rival Daniel Dubois in the fifth round.
Dubois, 27, knocked down Joshua towards the end of the opening round with an overhand right to the 34-year-old’s chin.
The IBF heavyweight champion then dropped Joshua at the end of round three and twice in the fourth.
A right hook ended the fight with a knockout for Dubois’ first defence of the title.
The fighters went toe to toe at London’s Wembley Stadium in front of a record 96,000 fans.
The 34-year-old was knocked down four times in the opening four rounds, and knocked out in the fifth. Pic: Reuters
Daniel Dubois became IBF champion after Oleksandr Usyk vacated the title. Pic: Reuters
‘We came up short’
Minutes after retaining the IBF championship, Dubois shouted to the crowd “are you not entertained?” before saying: “I’m a gladiator, you know?
“I’m just a warrior to the bitter end. I’m just ready to go. I want to go to the top level of this game and reach my potential. God bless you all.”
Joshua said the loss would not stop him from rebuilding despite admitting “we came up short”.
“You know I’m ready to kick off in the ring, but I’m going to keep my cool, keep very professional, and give respect to my opponent,” he said.
“I’m always saying to myself I’m a fighter for life… We keep rolling the dice. I had a sharp opponent, a fast opponent and a lot of mistakes from my end, but that’s the game.”
Dubois’ victory has sent a message to the whole heavyweight division
Daniel Dubois will feel like he has fulfilled his destiny here at Wembley. His father has trained him to be a champion boxer since he was tiny.
He held the IBF belt, but he has gone in there tonight and defended it in spectacular fashion – he is now in every conversation going forward.
What now for AJ? Can he face rebuilding? And will he even want to?
The Wembley ring walk is notoriously long, and Dubois looked nervous – but so did Joshua, who has done this many times before in front of a full house.
Perhaps he was thinking of what was at stake – the chance to be a three-time heavyweight champion of the world.
But 27-year-old Dubois holds the belt and was keen to prove he was a worthy champion quickly.
Many wondered if Dubois would freeze on the biggest stage: Question asked and answered emphatically.
It was a crushing defeat for Joshua – most were not expecting such a one-sided victory.
Dubois will now most likely take on the winner of Fury v Usyk 2 for all the belts. But the manner of his victory has sent a message to the whole heavyweight division.
Pic: PA
Pic: PA
Hearn: AJ will want rematch
Promoter Eddie Hearn then said “it was the first round” where Joshua lost, “after that he was fighting on heart and desire”.
Hearn added: “When you are in there with a massive puncher this is what can happen. He never stopped trying to get up, even when he couldn’t get up.
“Daniel deserves credit, he’s a real world champion. Congratulations to him… I’m sure [Joshua will] exercise that rematch clause, it’s a given, it’s a dangerous fight because he’s growing in confidence all the time but he’ll believe he can beat him.”
Pic: Bradley Collyer/PA Wire
British champion Dubois, who before tonight had never fought at Wembley, was elevated to the IBF title holder after Oleksandr Usyk relinquished the belt.
Joshua outweighed Dubois by four pounds, despite a career-heaviest weight for his rival, ahead of the fight.
Among those watching was Tyson Fury, the former WBC heavyweight champion, who took a ringside seat.
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Liam plays Oasis hits
Fury is set to fight Usyk for the other three titles in a rematch on 21 December.
Ahead of the fight, Liam Gallagher played some of Oasis’ biggest hits to the sold-out crowd.
Pic: PA
Pic: Reuters
The 52-year-old frontman walked on to a massive cheer and said “yes Wembley vibes in the air,” before launching into Rock ‘N’ Roll Star, Supersonic and Cigarettes & Alcohol.
He and Noel Gallagher will play Wembley for their first of seven reunion shows at the stadium on 25 July – 307 days away.
Other famous faces ringside were Irish MMA fighter Conor McGregor, former boxer Ricky Hatton, Spice Girl Emma Bunton and Love Island presenter Maya Jama.
UK
Mohamed al Fayed: Former royal security head says he warned Royal Family before Diana went on holiday with businessman
The former head of royal protection says he warned the Royal Family about Mohamed al Fayed’s reputation before Princess Diana took her sons on holiday with him.
The former Harrods owner, who died last year at the age of 94, was described as a “monster” earlier this week by lawyers representing 37 alleged sexual abuse victims.
The women say he raped and sexually assaulted them while they worked at the luxury department store, prowling the shop floor and “cherry-picking” women to be brought to his executive suite.
Now, Mr Davies says people were aware of the Egyptian businessman’s reputation as far back as the 1990s, and that he raised concerns about him to the Royal Family.
Princess Diana on the quay of the residence of Mohamed al Fayed in Saint Tropez on 20 July 1997. File pic: AP
“This was a man who I would be concerned [about] if a relative of mine was going on holiday with him, let alone the future king and his brother and their mother, Princess Diana,” Dai Davies told Sky News.
Mohamed al Fayed during a match at Craven Cottage stadium in 2013: File pic: PA
In July 1997, a month before she died, Princess Diana went on holiday with Fayed and his wife to their residence in St Tropez.
She took the two young princes with her – a holiday Prince Harry described as “heaven” in his 2023 memoir Spare.
“I was horrified because I was aware of some of the allegations even then that were going around,” said Mr Davies.
“I was aware that he had tried very hard to ingratiate himself with the Royal Family and obviously knowing, as I did, the reputation he was alleged [to have] then, I was concerned, and I took the opportunity to inform the Royal Family.”
Princess Diana, Prince William (right) and Prince Harry (left) in Saint Tropez on 14 July 1997. File pic: AP
Mr Davies says he was told: “Her Majesty is aware.”
“The rest is history,” he said.
Buckingham Palace told Sky News it had no comment on the allegations.
Fulham ‘deeply disturbed’ by allegations
Fulham FC, a football club that was owned by Fayed between 1997 and 2013, has said it is “deeply troubled” by the dozens of “disturbing” sexual abuse allegations against the businessman.
The Premier League club also said it is “in the process of establishing whether anyone at the club is or has been affected” by this alleged behaviour.
Mohamed al Fayed waves a Fulham scarf in front of supporters in 2012. Pic: Reuters
However, Gaute Haugenes, who managed the club’s women’s team between 2001 and 2003, told the BBC extra precautions were taken to protect female players from Fayed.
“We were aware he liked young, blonde girls. So we just made sure that situations couldn’t occur. We protected the players.”
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‘The door was locked behind me’
A former Harrods employee told Sky News she was summoned to Fayed’s apartment when she began working for the department store at 19 years old.
She was told the meeting was a “job review” before “the door was locked behind me”.
“I saw his bedroom door partially open – there were sex toys on view,” she said.
“I felt petrified. I perched myself at the very end of the sofa and then… my boss, the person I worked for, pushed himself onto me.”
Read more: ‘One of the worst cases of corporate sexual exploitation’
Harrods said in a statement on Thursday it was “utterly appalled” by the allegations of abuse and apologised to Fayed’s alleged victims.
The department store has also set up a page on its website inviting former employees to come forward if they have allegations.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
The legal team involved in a civil claim against Harrods for allegedly failing to provide a safe system of work for its employees said they aimed to seek justice for the victims of a “vast web of abuse”.
Lily Allen says she had her children “for all the wrong reasons,” at a “high pressure” point in her career when she felt “overwhelmed”.
The singer and actress had her two daughters, Marnie, 12 and Ethel, 11, with her ex-husband Sam Cooper when she was in her mid-20s.
By the time she became a mum, she’d already had hit singles including Smile and The Fear, released two studio albums and received a Brit Award for best British female solo artist.
Speaking about motherhood on the BBC podcast Miss Me?, which Allen hosts with her long-time friend Miquita Oliver, she said: “I think I had children for all the wrong reasons, really.
“Because I was yearning for unconditional love, which I haven’t felt in my life since I was a child.”
The now 39-year-old star added: “And also, my career was at such high speed, high pressure, and I felt like very overwhelmed by what was happening. I just didn’t get much respite you know?
“And I felt like the only way to stop people hassling me was to say, ‘It’s not about me, actually this is about this other person that’s inside me’.
When asked by Oliver if it worked, Allen says: “Yeah, they did leave me alone. I don’t think I really understood what was happening, what I got myself into.”
The daughter of actor Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen, she went on to discuss her own childhood.
“My mum, bless her, had children really early as well, and she really struggled. But she doesn’t really talk about the struggle. And so… She inadvertently gaslit me into thinking it was, you know, easy.
“You just sort of throw the kid over your shoulder and you get on with it.
“Her job was very static, and in one place and went to an office and mine wasn’t like that at all. It wasn’t easy. It just wasn’t easy.”
Allen is married to Stranger Things star David Harbour
The ‘nasty scars’ caused by absent parents
Allen previously told the Radio Times podcast that while she loves her children, having them “ruined her career”.
She said her decision to prioritise them over her pop career was a decision she made so as not to inflict the “nasty scars” of being an “absent” parent onto them.
She also said the myth of having it all “really annoyed” as it simply was not true.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Allen, whose younger brother is Game Of Thrones actor Alfie Allen, married Stranger Things star David Harbour in 2020.
Away from her music career, Allen has branched out into acting over the last few years, starring in two plays in London’s West End, and winning a role in Sky drama Dreamland last year.
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