News

The pilot of the US bomber Enola Gay, which in 1945 dropped the first nuclear bomb on Japan died this week aged 92. He had said he wanted his ashes to be scattered over the English Channel.

Paul Tibbets requested no funeral or headstone because he feared they would attract protesters and in 2005, he said he wanted his ashes scattered over the English Channel, where he had enjoyed flying during the war.

Mr Tibbets was in command of the B-29 aircraft, which dropped the five-ton "Little Boy" bomb over Hiroshima as the US tried to end the second world war without a ground invasion of Japan.

Up to 100,000 people are estimated to have died in the explosion.

Mr Tibbets, whose plane was named after his mother, had enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1937, and finally left the US air force as a brigadier general in 1966.

 

More than 63 years after bombs and shells ripped through Dover, a service is being held to honour the civilians who stood on the Home Front.

The service of remembrance and thanksgiving will commemorate all the Dovorians who lost their lives in both wars of the 20th century.

It is being held on Tuesday, November 6, at 10.30am at St Mary’s Church in Biggin Street, Dover.

The remembrance service will include a thanksgiving for the people who captured the guns at Calais in September, 1944, ending the shelling over Dover.

More than 200 civilians died from bombing and shelling, and records show 464 bombs and 2,226 shells fell on the town – statistics that gave the area the name of Hellfire Corner.
 

Prince William's platoon commander at Sandhurst was killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan on Thursday (4 October).

The Prince has said he was "deeply saddened" at the death of Major Alexis Roberts who was in command of B Company, 2nd Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles in Shorncliffe, Folkestone.

He described the soldier, as a "good friend" and said his thoughts and prayers were with Major Roberts' wife and two young daughters.

The Ministry of Defence said Major Roberts, usually an Officer of 2nd Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles, died as a result of an improvised explosive device on Thursday while commanding the 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles.

He and two others were about 19 miles west of Kandahar Airfield base, heading back towards it, when the blast hit their vehicle.

All three were airlifted to Camp Bastion, Britain's main base in Afghanistan, where one was pronounced dead. The other two were receiving treatment.

Major Roberts is the most senior Army officer to die in Afghanistan since the conflict began. Some 82 UK troops have been killed in the country since 2001.

The annual Merchant Navy Day ceremony will be held on Monday (3 September)

Chairman of Dover District Council, Cllr Bernard Butcher, with the Kent Branch of the Merchant Navy Association, is organising the service at Dover Town Hall.

The standard bearers will arrive and congregate around 10.25am by the side of the hall, or in Connaught Hall if it's wet.

They will enter the Town Hall at 10.30am and the Service of Celebration will begin at 10.35am, followed by an address from the Chairman of the Kent Branch of the Merchant Navy Association and a closing address from the Chairman of Dover District Council.

For more information on the Merchant Navy Day service, please call the Secretary to the Chairman at Dover District Council on (01304) 872003.