David Irving's Action Report On-line

Posted Sunday, December 31, 2000

Sunday, December 31, 2000

Spielberg D-Day hero fury at knighthood for Spielberg

By Chris Hastings

A ROYAL Navy officer who commanded American troops during the D-Day landings has attacked the Government's decision to award an honorary knighthood to Steven Spielberg. George Green is furious that Tony Blair has sanctioned the honour when the American director's 1998 film, Saving Private Ryan, failed to highlight the role played by British servicemen in the capture of Omaha beach in 1944.

The 1998 movie, which won five Oscars including one for Spielberg as best director, portrayed the invasion of the Normandy beach as a purely American operation. In reality thousands of American servicemen owed their lives to a small team of British sailors who braved intense enemy fire. Mr Green, 79, says the award will only cause further heartache for those Britons still upset about their omission from the film. The war veteran has written a letter of complaint to Downing Street which he hopes will be passed on to the 54-year-old director.

A Downing Street spokesman said that the honour was made on the recommendation of the Foreign Office and the British embassy in Washington. He said: "It is in honour of his contribution to the British film industry. He has made a number of his major films over here and that has created jobs." The decision to honour Spielberg has also sparked accusations of cronyism.

The Prime Minister's son, Euan, recently spent a week on the set of the director's new television production called Band of Brothers. John Townend, the Tory MP, said: "It seems Mr Spielberg is just another in a long line of Tony's cronies. All you have to do to get an honour under this Government is give money to the party or give one of the Prime Minister's family a job." He added: "This Government has brought the entire honours system into disrepute."

Mr Green told The Telegraph: "The film's failure to mention any British involvement in this particular part of the operation was incorrect and insensitive. Now Spielberg has a knighthood he has a duty to set the record straight. Ignorance of this kind might be acceptable in a film director. It is certainly not acceptable in a Knight of the British Empire. I think an apology would be expected and acceptable." Mr Green was a 22-year-old sub-lieutenant when he was responsible for transporting American servicemen across the Channel in the early hours of June 6, 1944.

One vessel was sunk and another lost all of its passengers when it was hit by mortar fire. One British crewmen was killed during the operation and is buried in Normandy. None of these incidents features in the film. The omission is made all the more unforgivable in Mr Green's eyes because it was his vessel that transported the US army unit which inspired the Spielberg film. Mr Green joined the Army after the war and rose to the position of lieutenant-colonel before his retirement in 1976. He has no quarrel with the Americans who took part in the invasion.

He believes they are also upset about the repeated failure to honour the British servicemen. Professor Stephen Ambrose, the American historian who worked as a consultant on the film, last night accepted that British Navy personnel did transport American troops to the beach. He defended both the film and the decision to honour Spielberg. "The movie was really about one or two characters, not the whole invasion. There were no British troops on the actual stretch of beach which the movie is concerned with." He said: "I think the knighthood is a very generous gesture by the people of Britain." Mr Ambrose is to make corrections to a new edition of a book about the invasion following correspondence with Mr Green.