:00:08. > :00:10.Good evening. 70 years after the D`Day landings in Normandy,
:00:11. > :00:13.tributes have been paid across the Midlands to the len
:00:14. > :00:15.who changed the course of World War Two.
:00:16. > :00:18.For those who couldn't make the trip to France,
:00:19. > :00:21.a ceremony was held at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.
:00:22. > :00:36.hundreds came to remember and pay their respects.
:00:37. > :00:40.Reverend Dick Sargent was jtst 9 when he reached Utah Beach
:00:41. > :00:46.in Normandy. The Stafford clergyman led 200 men, battling waves
:00:47. > :00:55.and machine gunfire during those historic first landings.
:00:56. > :01:01.The water was shallow, we should not have been there, we were on the
:01:02. > :01:06.wrong beach. I spent about half an hour in the water shouldering the
:01:07. > :01:11.bolts of the sandbanks so they could let the soldiers down. It sounds
:01:12. > :01:14.mundane, but it was the job. It was what we were supposed to do.
:01:15. > :01:17.Hundreds stood in silence at the Normandy Veterans Memorial,
:01:18. > :01:19.honouring those who paid the ultimate price.
:01:20. > :01:33.We had no sense of liberating Europe or the laws or anything elsd. We
:01:34. > :01:35.just had rather a lot to do that morning.
:01:36. > :01:39.Among those paying respects, a former Royal Marine born on D`Day.
:01:40. > :01:46.I was born in 1944 at six o'clock. My mother had been interviewed about
:01:47. > :01:49.my birth. This week, D`Day veterans
:01:50. > :02:01.from across the West Midlands It means everything, really. Being
:02:02. > :02:09.the last trip, it will be more poignant. I can remember my old
:02:10. > :02:13.comrades. Today has also bedn about symbols. This pennant was attached
:02:14. > :02:20.to the last landing craft to arrive at Utah Beach 70 years ago.
:02:21. > :02:22.This commemoration may be the last for many
:02:23. > :02:24.but it was also the first for many families.
:02:25. > :02:33.For one generation to inspire the next.
:02:34. > :02:35.One of the veterans who did make the journey to France
:02:36. > :02:38.was Ken Reynolds from Hednesford, who arrived on Sword Beach
:02:39. > :02:41.just a couple of days after the D`Day landings.
:02:42. > :02:43.Speaking to me from Normandx amid continuing ceremonies,
:02:44. > :02:52.he told me how he'd found today's commemorations.
:02:53. > :03:02.Quite moving, really. Quite moving. Can you give me an idea of xour role
:03:03. > :03:09.in the D`Day landings? You were on Sword Beach? Yes, but I was in
:03:10. > :03:15.charge of the rear party, so I had to catch up in a couple of days I
:03:16. > :03:23.was not in the first lot. What you find when you got there? Ch`os.
:03:24. > :03:36.Chaos, everybody doing everxthing but nobody knowing. We got the guns
:03:37. > :03:41.together and shook the enemx up a bit.
:03:42. > :03:44.A six`month`old baby died and a second almost lost his life
:03:45. > :03:48.were not classed as the highest emergency.
:03:49. > :03:52.West Midlands Ambulance Service assessed both cases as Red2,
:03:53. > :03:55.which means an ambulance isn't automatically sent.
:03:56. > :04:00.Here's our Health Correspondent Michele Paduano.
:04:01. > :04:03.Cainan was just six months old when he developed breathing diffhculties.
:04:04. > :04:05.An ambulance was two minutes away in Wolverhampton
:04:06. > :04:10.But it was not classed as the most urgent case. It was registered
:04:11. > :04:15.as a Red2, and a paramedic car 14 minutes away was sent instead.
:04:16. > :04:20.Sadly, Cainan didn't survivd. West Midlands Ambulance Service changed
:04:21. > :04:27.We lost him because of a catalogue of errors that he did not gdt the
:04:28. > :04:30.chance to survive. He did not get the chance to survive. It h`s just
:04:31. > :04:35.devastated our lives. its advice to call handlers within
:04:36. > :04:40.weeks of his death in Octobdr 2 12 so that babies breathing
:04:41. > :04:45.abnormally are sent an ambulance. We do not want this to happdn again
:04:46. > :04:47.unnecessarily. We have to lhve with the question, was his death
:04:48. > :04:51.necessary? But it did happen again,
:04:52. > :04:53.two months later. Thomas Passant,
:04:54. > :04:55.who is now nearly two, was having breathing diffictlties
:04:56. > :04:57.in December. He too was classed as Red2
:04:58. > :05:00.and sent a paramedic in a c`r. It then took 41 minutes to
:05:01. > :05:03.get an ambulance to him. Thomas suffered an arrest
:05:04. > :05:12.in the ambulance and almost died. The baby was in distress. Hd was
:05:13. > :05:18.hardly breathing, fighting for breath. He had erupted heartbeat.
:05:19. > :05:20.That was a red alert, our grandson was laying on the floor fighting for
:05:21. > :05:21.his life. Paul Passant campaigned for more
:05:22. > :05:23.ambulances in Shropshire, but he was never told
:05:24. > :05:26.that an ambulance was avail`ble at the time of their call and
:05:27. > :05:30.could have got Thomas to hospital much sooner. West Midlands
:05:31. > :05:32.Ambulance Service said that Though in the case of Thomas it
:05:33. > :05:36.accepts that the investigathon was poor and there was
:05:37. > :05:45.no clear reason West Midlands ambulance service has
:05:46. > :05:49.apologised for overlooking the fact there was an ambulance available in
:05:50. > :05:55.that first investigation. The chief executive contacted the grandfather.
:05:56. > :05:59.They said insufficient time was given to the original investigation
:06:00. > :06:00.cause they were more concerned about getting more ambulances on the road
:06:01. > :06:02.in Shropshire. New guidance on babies with
:06:03. > :06:04.breathing difficulties have been brought in
:06:05. > :06:06.making them top priority. Hereford United have been ghven
:06:07. > :06:08.until tomorrow morning to pay their debts or be thrown out
:06:09. > :06:11.of the Football Conference. The club owe almost ?150,000
:06:12. > :06:13.to their creditors, The Bulls would be
:06:14. > :06:18.relegated two divisions if they fail to meet
:06:19. > :06:22.tomorrow's deadline. That's all from me.
:06:23. > :06:24.Midlands Today will be back on BBC One
:06:25. > :06:27.tomorrow evening at 7.30pm. I'll leave you with the weather
:06:28. > :06:38.from Rebecca. Good evening. It has been a pleasant
:06:39. > :06:41.day. Through the weekend, things are changing. Tomorrow we have ` Met
:06:42. > :06:46.Office yellow weather warning in place for heavy rain. 25 millilitres
:06:47. > :06:50.falling within an hour so wd could get localised flooding throtgh the
:06:51. > :06:53.day. It is dry at the moment, milder air over the top of us, that will
:06:54. > :07:00.help keep the temperatures tp. It is going to be quite a sticky night,
:07:01. > :07:05.showers working their way through in the early hours of tomorrow
:07:06. > :07:09.morning. Laws of 13 to 16 Cdlsius. We start off tomorrow dry, but it is
:07:10. > :07:14.not long before the show 's work their way up from the south. Heavy
:07:15. > :07:20.bursts in there. It will be breezy around them, clearing away, and
:07:21. > :07:24.behind that, a few residual showers. Temperature is managing to climb up
:07:25. > :07:30.to 21 Celsius through the afternoon. Sunday looking much better, good
:07:31. > :07:31.spells of sunshine through the day. Temperatures up to
:07:32. > :07:33.improve to some extent. The showers move away and a fresh appeal to
:07:34. > :07:42.things. Good evening. The good news is,
:07:43. > :07:45.there will be some decent dry on a sunny moment to come through the
:07:46. > :07:50.weekend. But over the next 24 hours, the threat of thunderstorms
:07:51. > :07:54.looms large. The ingredients have been coming together today - warm
:07:55. > :07:57.air pushing northwards out of Iberia, cooler air from the Atlantic
:07:58. > :08:02.trying to pushed away. In between the cloud has been building with a
:08:03. > :08:04.lot of energy in the atmosphere sparking off some nasty
:08:05. > :08:08.thunderstorms across parts of northern Spain and south-west
:08:09. > :08:13.France. They will produce most of the rainfall tomorrow. Ahead of it,
:08:14. > :08:17.the cloud is starting to produce thunderstorms itself. We've seen in
:08:18. > :08:19.Cornwall. A few sporadic thunderstorms across central and