DANICA KIRKA

Associated Press
Christian Lamb helped landing craft pilots get their bearings with 3-D view of coastal landmarks
The maps “shared railways, roads, churches, castles, every possible feature that could be visible to an incoming invader and from every angle,” Lamb, now 103, told the Associated Press. “It was intense and exciting work, and obviously detail was vital. It was crucial that the maps were 100% accurate
 
The war came to her: Pat Owtram gleaned critical intelligence by listening in on German U-boats
Pat Owtram didn’t need to go to war. It came to her.

One of them, Lily Getzel, was a cultured woman from Vienna who told stories of concerts and the opera _ exotic fare for a girl who rarely left her rural home because of fuel shortages. They spoke in a combination of German, Austrian German, and English.
 
Marie Scott who was a serving Wren and switchboard operator at the time of D-Day, at her home in London, Thursday, April 25, 2024. D-Day, took place on June 6, 1944, the invasion of the beaches at Normandy in France by Alied forces during World War II. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Radio operator Marie Scott, 17, provided link to D-Day beaches as sounds of war filled her headset
Marie Scott “saw” British forces land on the Normandy coast through her earphones.

Stationed in tunnels 100 feet below Fort Southwick on the south coast of England, Scott was safe from the carnage of D-Day.
 
Dorothea Barron, aged 99, who was a serving Wren at the time of D-Day waves as she sits in a Spitfire at Biggin Hill Airport in Kent, England, Tuesday, May 28, 2024. The Taxi Charity for Military Veterans took WWII veterans, including Normandy veterans, to an event at the Biggin Hill Heritage Hangar just ahead of their trip to Normandy for the D Day 80th Anniversary. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Dorothea Barron watched over men who battled sea to perfect harbors seen as key to Normandy success
During the spring and summer of 1943, she and her colleagues kept watch over the troops who tested the prototypes for two prefabricated harbors that would be constructed in the hours after D-Day to ease the delivery of men and equipment to the battlefield. Whenever someone got into trouble, Barron w
 
My month with the Wrens: A personal story about four women who helped win World War II

This isn’t really my story. It’s the story of four women who helped turn the tide of war.




My assignment was to find surviving D-Day veterans and tell their stories as part of The Associated Press’ coverage of the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings that marked the beginning of the end of the Nazi grip on Europe. But as the number of living men who stormed the beaches has dwindled o
 
(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Codebreakers, cartographers and coxswains: Barred from combat, women helped ensure D-Day success

What did you do in the war, Granny?




“I think I grew up that day from being a stupid 17-year-old. I think I honestly grew up on D-Day. So I shall always remember it _ at least I hope I will,” Scott said recently at her home in London.
 
Charlotte Tobierre looks out the window at her house in Essex, England, Tuesday, June 20, 2023. Britain this week marks the 75th anniversary of the day the MV Windrush docked at the port of London. But even as the nation prepares to celebrate an event that reshaped modern Britain, thousands of those migrants, like Tobias Tobierre, are still waiting for compensation almost six years after the government acknowledged that they had been wrongly targeted by a crackdown on illegal immigration. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
Windrush scandal rumbles on 5 years after UK government’s apology
 
FILE - President Donald Trump meets with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019, in New York. Boris Johnson and Donald Trump have quite a bit in common as two populist iconoclasts in hot water after leaving the top office in their respective nations. But they are likely on different trajectories. Trump is the frontrunner for his party's presidential nomination and stands a solid chance of winning back his old job from President Joe Biden in 2024. Johnson is a man without a party with a less direct route back to power in the United Kingdom. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
How Trump and Johnson, divisive populists with many similarities, ended up on different paths
Boris Johnson and Donald Trump have quite a bit in common as two populist iconoclasts in hot water after leaving the top office in their respective nations. But they are likely on different trajectories.
 
FILE - Boris Johnson leaves his house in London, on March 22, 2023. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson deliberately misled Parliament about the lockdown-flouting parties that undermined his credibility and contributed to his downfall, a committee of lawmakers said Thursday, June 15, 2023 after a year-long investigation. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali, File)
Scathing report finds Boris Johnson deliberately misled UK Parliament over ‘partygate’
A committee of lawmakers has harshly rebuked former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. In a report issued on Thursday, the House of Commons Privileges Committee said Johnson lied to Parliament about lockdown-flouting parties and was complicit in a campaign to intimidate those investigating his co
 
FILE - Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrive at United Nations headquarters, Monday, July 18, 2022. A spokesperson for Prince Harry and his wife Meghan says the couple were involved in a car chase while being followed by photographers. The couple’s office says the pair and Meghan’s mother were followed for more than two hours by a half-dozen vehicles after leaving a charity event in New York on Tuesday, May 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
Prince Harry and Meghan’s run from paparazzi is another episode in battle royale with the media
 
Britain's Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, right, greets Ukraine's President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, after his arrival at Chequers, in Aylesbury, England, Monday, May 15, 2023. Zelenskyy was in Britain Monday on his whirlwind European tour, as the staunch ally of Kyiv promised to give Ukraine hundreds more missiles and attack drones in an effort to change the course of the war. (Carl Court/Pool via AP)
UK pledges attack drones, more missiles as Ukraine’s Zelenskyy meets prime minister on European tour
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak greeted Zelenskyy with a handshake and hug after the president’s helicopter landed at Chequers, the British leader’s official country retreat. It was Zelenskyy’s second trip to the U.K. since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, but the fifth European country he visite
 
FILE - Protesters from climate protest group 'Just Stop Oil' are apprehended by police officers in the crowd close to where Britain's King Charles III will be crowned at Westminster Abbey, in London, Saturday, May 6, 2023. London’s top police officer on Friday, May 12, 2023 defended the department against complaints of a heavy-handed response to protesters during the coronation of King Charles III, saying his officers intervened to prevent “serious disruption and criminality.” (Justin Tallis/Pool Photo via AP, File)
London police chief rejects complaints of heavy-handed response to coronation protesters
‘’Had our officers not acted on the reasonable grounds based on the evidence in front of them in the moment and the potential risk to the event, there would now be much more serious questions to answer about the event,’’ Rowley wrote. “Serious and reliable intelligence told us that the risks were ve
 
Southeastern trains in sidings at Ashford International railway station in Kent, Britain, as members of the drivers' union Aslef have staged a walk out during their long-running dispute over pay, Friday May 12, 2023. The U.K. economy grew sluggishly during the first three months of the year as double-digit inflation curbed consumer spending and labor unrest curtailed output in industries ranging from transportation to healthcare and education. (Gareth Fuller/PA via AP)
UK economy grows sluggishly in 1st quarter as double-digit inflation curbs consumers spending
Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic activity, increased 0.1% in the first quarter compared with the previous three months, the Office for National Statistics said Friday. The figure matched the growth rate during the fourth quarter of last year and was in line with economic fore
 
Britain's Prince Louis eats toasted marshmallows as they take part in the Big Help Out, during a visit to the 3rd Upton Scouts Hut in Slough, England, Monday, May 8, 2023. People across Britain were on Monday asked to do their duty as the celebrations for King Charles III's coronation drew to a close with a massive volunteering drive. (Daniel Leal/Pool Photo via AP)
King’s pledge of service defines UK’s modern monarchy
It’s a strange word from the lips of a king — not exactly the stuff of fairy tales, or monarchs leading armies into battle, or shouting, “Off with their heads!” It’s been more than 260 years since a British king led troops in the field, and Charles is legally barred from meddling in politics.
 
Traffic moves through the decorated Regent Street in central London Friday, May 5, 2023. The Coronation of King Charles III will take place at Westminster Abbey on May 6. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Charles III crowned in ancient rite at Westminster Abbey
Trumpets sounded inside the medieval abbey and the congregation shouted “God save the king!” at a service attended by more than 2,000 guests, including world leaders, aristocrats and celebrities. Outside, thousands of troops, tens of thousands of spectators and a smattering of protesters converged.
 
FILE - Britain's King Charles III, back to camera, greets well-wishers as he walks by the gates of Buckingham Palace following Thursday's death of Queen Elizabeth II, in London, Friday, Sept. 9, 2022. King Charles III will be crowned Saturday, May 6, 2023 at Westminster Abbey in an event full of all the pageantry Britain can muster. (Yui Mok/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Showtime! UK readies pomp for King Charles III’s coronation
The crown has been resized. The troops are prepared for the biggest military procession in 70 years.
 
FILE - Britain's Prince Charles wears a 'Yarmulke,' or Jewish skull cap, during the funeral of Shimon Peres at Mt. Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem, Friday, Sept. 23, 2016. At a time when religion is fueling tensions around the world — from Hindu nationalists in India to Jewish settlers in the West Bank and fundamentalist Christians in the United States, King Charles III is trying to bridge the differences between the faith groups that make up Britain’s increasingly diverse society. (Abir Sultan, Pool via AP, File)
Jews, Muslims, Sikhs get coronation role as king reaches out
“When he says he wants to be a defender of faiths, that means the world because our history hasn’t always been so simple and we haven’t always lived freely; we haven’t been able to practice our religion,” Liss told The Associated Press. “But knowing that King Charles acts this way and speaks this wa
 
Richard Townend looks at old photographs, at Hill House School in London, a school where Britain's King Charles III was a pupil, Thursday, April 20, 2023. King Charles III hasn’t even been crowned yet, but his name is already etched on the walls of Hill House School in London. A wooden slab just inside the front door records Nov. 7, 1956, as the day the future king enrolled at Hill House alongside other notable dates in the school’s 72-year history. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Name etched in gold, King Charles’ school remembers him
A wooden slab just inside the front door records Nov. 7, 1956, as the day the future king enrolled at Hill House, alongside other notable dates in the school’s 72-year history.
 
A view of a crocheted crown made as a post box topper by a member of the 'Hurst Hookers' knitting group during a pre-coronation 'yarn bombing', in the village of Hurst, near Reading, England, Friday, April 21, 2023. Heather Howarth and her friends in the village of Hurst, a stone’s throw from Reading, west of London, have fashioned a woolly coronation procession to rival the pomp and circumstance that will take place when Charles is crowned on May 6 at Westminster Abbey. (AP Photo/David Cliff)
‘Woolly delinquents’ celebrate Charles’ coronation in yarn
Heather Howarth tugged at King Charles III’s ears and tittered with satisfaction.

The other ladies who gather to knit and natter in her small English village thought the ears should be bigger.
 
The Stone of Destiny is seen during a welcome ceremony ahead of the coronation of Britain's King Charles III, in Westminster Abbey, London, Saturday, April 29, 2023. (Susannah Ireland/Pool Photo via AP)
Details revealed about King Charles III’s coronation service
It will be a coronation of many faiths and many languages.

“The service contains new elements that reflect the diversity of our contemporary society,’’ Archbishop Justin Welby, spiritual leader of the Church of England, said in a statement. “It is my prayer that all who share in this service, whether they are of faith or no faith, will find ancient wisdom a
 
FILE - King Charles III leaves Westminster Hall, in the Palace of Westminster, where the House of Commons and the House of Lords met to express their condolences in London, Monday, Sept. 12, 2022. King Charles III will hope to keep a lid on those tensions when his royally blended family joins as many as 2,800 guests for the new king’s coronation on May 6 at Westminster Abbey. All except Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, who won’t be attending. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, Pool, File)
Royal Drama: King’s fractious family on stage at coronation
The new king will hope to keep a lid on those tensions when his royally blended family joins as many as 2,800 guests for Charles’ coronation on May 6 at Westminster Abbey. All except Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, are attending.
 
James Wilkinson points to a photo of himself as a young Westminster Abbey chorister who sang during the June 2, 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, in London, April 17, 2023. The choristers spent months preparing for the service, learning the music and lyrics to the hymns they would sing during the three-hour long ceremony. Wilkinson knew he was part of something extraordinary, so the future BBC journalist recorded everything he saw, in a looping script on the now-yellowed pages of his diary. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Queen Elizabeth’s coronation lifted Britain’s post-war gloom
Central London buzzed with activity as workers built temporary stands along the 5-mile route of the queen’s procession. Giant crowns were suspended from arches that soared over The Mall approaching Buckingham Palace, and shopkeepers filled their windows with colorful banners and coronation-themed pr
 
King’s Champion, orb-bearer: Palace unveils coronation roles
Dymoke, a 67-year-old farmer from eastern England, will be the King’s Champion at the coronation, fulfilling a role performed by members of his family since William the Conqueror was crowned nearly 1,000 years ago. His was one of more than two dozen ceremonial roles announced Thursday by Buckingham