06/06/2014 Midlands Today

Good evening. 70 years after the D`Day landings in Normandy,

tributes have been paid across the Midlands to the len

who changed the course of World War Two.

For those who couldn't make the trip to France,

a ceremony was held at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.

hundreds came to remember and pay their respects.

Reverend Dick Sargent was jtst 9 when he reached Utah Beach

in Normandy. The Stafford clergyman led 200 men, battling waves

and machine gunfire during those historic first landings.

The water was shallow, we should not have been there, we were on the

wrong beach. I spent about half an hour in the water shouldering the

bolts of the sandbanks so they could let the soldiers down. It sounds

mundane, but it was the job. It was what we were supposed to do.

Hundreds stood in silence at the Normandy Veterans Memorial,

honouring those who paid the ultimate price.

We had no sense of liberating Europe or the laws or anything elsd. We

just had rather a lot to do that morning.

Among those paying respects, a former Royal Marine born on D`Day.

I was born in 1944 at six o'clock. My mother had been interviewed about

my birth. This week, D`Day veterans

from across the West Midlands It means everything, really. Being

the last trip, it will be more poignant. I can remember my old

comrades. Today has also bedn about symbols. This pennant was attached

to the last landing craft to arrive at Utah Beach 70 years ago.

This commemoration may be the last for many

but it was also the first for many families.

For one generation to inspire the next.

One of the veterans who did make the journey to France

was Ken Reynolds from Hednesford, who arrived on Sword Beach

just a couple of days after the D`Day landings.

Speaking to me from Normandx amid continuing ceremonies,

he told me how he'd found today's commemorations.

Quite moving, really. Quite moving. Can you give me an idea of xour role

in the D`Day landings? You were on Sword Beach? Yes, but I was in

charge of the rear party, so I had to catch up in a couple of days I

was not in the first lot. What you find when you got there? Ch`os.

Chaos, everybody doing everxthing but nobody knowing. We got the guns

together and shook the enemx up a bit.

A six`month`old baby died and a second almost lost his life

were not classed as the highest emergency.

West Midlands Ambulance Service assessed both cases as Red2,

which means an ambulance isn't automatically sent.

Here's our Health Correspondent Michele Paduano.

Cainan was just six months old when he developed breathing diffhculties.

An ambulance was two minutes away in Wolverhampton

But it was not classed as the most urgent case. It was registered

as a Red2, and a paramedic car 14 minutes away was sent instead.

Sadly, Cainan didn't survivd. West Midlands Ambulance Service changed

We lost him because of a catalogue of errors that he did not gdt the

chance to survive. He did not get the chance to survive. It h`s just

devastated our lives. its advice to call handlers within

weeks of his death in Octobdr 2 12 so that babies breathing

abnormally are sent an ambulance. We do not want this to happdn again

unnecessarily. We have to lhve with the question, was his death

necessary? But it did happen again,

two months later. Thomas Passant,

who is now nearly two, was having breathing diffictlties

in December. He too was classed as Red2

and sent a paramedic in a c`r. It then took 41 minutes to

get an ambulance to him. Thomas suffered an arrest

in the ambulance and almost died. The baby was in distress. Hd was

hardly breathing, fighting for breath. He had erupted heartbeat.

That was a red alert, our grandson was laying on the floor fighting for

his life. Paul Passant campaigned for more

ambulances in Shropshire, but he was never told

that an ambulance was avail`ble at the time of their call and

could have got Thomas to hospital much sooner. West Midlands

Ambulance Service said that Though in the case of Thomas it

accepts that the investigathon was poor and there was

no clear reason West Midlands ambulance service has

apologised for overlooking the fact there was an ambulance available in

that first investigation. The chief executive contacted the grandfather.

They said insufficient time was given to the original investigation

cause they were more concerned about getting more ambulances on the road

in Shropshire. New guidance on babies with

breathing difficulties have been brought in

making them top priority. Hereford United have been ghven

until tomorrow morning to pay their debts or be thrown out

of the Football Conference. The club owe almost ?150,000

to their creditors, The Bulls would be

relegated two divisions if they fail to meet

tomorrow's deadline. That's all from me.

Midlands Today will be back on BBC One

tomorrow evening at 7.30pm. I'll leave you with the weather

from Rebecca. Good evening. It has been a pleasant

day. Through the weekend, things are changing. Tomorrow we have ` Met

Office yellow weather warning in place for heavy rain. 25 millilitres

falling within an hour so wd could get localised flooding throtgh the

day. It is dry at the moment, milder air over the top of us, that will

help keep the temperatures tp. It is going to be quite a sticky night,

showers working their way through in the early hours of tomorrow

morning. Laws of 13 to 16 Cdlsius. We start off tomorrow dry, but it is

not long before the show 's work their way up from the south. Heavy

bursts in there. It will be breezy around them, clearing away, and

behind that, a few residual showers. Temperature is managing to climb up

to 21 Celsius through the afternoon. Sunday looking much better, good

spells of sunshine through the day. Temperatures up to

improve to some extent. The showers move away and a fresh appeal to

things. Good evening. The good news is,

there will be some decent dry on a sunny moment to come through the

weekend. But over the next 24 hours, the threat of thunderstorms

looms large. The ingredients have been coming together today - warm

air pushing northwards out of Iberia, cooler air from the Atlantic

trying to pushed away. In between the cloud has been building with a

lot of energy in the atmosphere sparking off some nasty

thunderstorms across parts of northern Spain and south-west

France. They will produce most of the rainfall tomorrow. Ahead of it,

the cloud is starting to produce thunderstorms itself. We've seen in

Cornwall. A few sporadic thunderstorms across central and