by Giles Foden
By the magic of PowerPoint you can see the painting on the next slide…it, too, is referred to in the text…And here is the writing of the other side. The artists say that after the war Meadows had to readjust his understanding of their relationship. They also describe him as ‘a pig-headed enthusiast for meteorology’, which is as good an epitaph as any weather prophet could ask for. I’d be glad of it and I’m an old man now.
As for turbulence itself, the depths are marginally less obscure than formerly. Certain patterns, we can discern. But it still casts a spell, this turbulence. When we feel ourselves approach the frontier of established knowledge on this topic, we should beware, keeping a firm evidential footing. What we think we see beyond is sometimes just a vision, like a shadow cast on an iceberg.
I have now just a quick historical comment with which to close. The outcome for mankind would have been different if scientific advice had not been heeded on this occasion. I’m very pleased, as a naturalised American myself, that the government continues to be convinced by the credibility of scientific experts. All theories await falsification, it is said, but while there is evidence for them, we ought to take proper notice, however complex that evidence might sometimes be.
In respect of which, just before we came out here to California, one of our participants—he’s the senior historian for the US Air Force Weather Service and I think you can all see him sitting there, next to the Sheikh in the front row—received a telephone call from the Pentagon. It was from the team which supports Air Force One, whose duties include forecasting the weather for the destination of the President. As you know, the President is in France to commemorate, with other heads of state, the invasion we have been discussing yesterday and today and will continue to discuss tomorrow.
The Pentagon wanted to know: what was the weather on June 6th 1944, and was it as forecast? They plan to pass some supplementary notes to the President in the folder that flies with Air Force One. These notes will inform the President that the answer is, quite simply, yes. The weather on the day was essentially as forecast.
As we know, most of the troops killed on D-Day were Americans. I’m told that once a salute has been fired out to sea above the cliff-tops of Omaha beach, the President will tell veterans they shall be honoured ever and always, adding: “America would do it again for our friends.”
One day I hope that the leader of my own birthplace, Germany, and also that of Russia, will attend the D-Day ceremony. Perhaps then the haunting memory of the danger and sacrifice of that long-ago summer may at last be put to rest. Not forgotten, or obliterated, or dishonoured; but put to rest.
There is a line from Haydn’s The Seasons, which work is mentioned in the text in passing. It is Sei nun gnadig, milder Himmel…What? Please, sir, do not fret that I speak German on this occasion. The words mean, ‘Be thou gracious, O kind Heaven’.
With that, I think we should close the launch of this book, which is available for sale in the lobby. Before we move on, as you can see up here on the screen now, to an analysis of the upper-air synoptic charts made in the days prior to D-Day by my former colleagues in the Zentral Wetterdienstgruppe, I would like to thank you all very, very much…Excuse me, but I suggest that those entering for the next session come round by another route, so as not to clash with those who are leaving.
THE END