January 30
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Thousands of people have paid their last respects to Britain's greatest wartime leader Sir Winston Churchill who was buried today after a full state funeral. Silent crowds lined the streets to watch the gun carriage bearing Sir Winston's coffin leave Westminster Hall as Big Ben struck 0945. The procession travelled slowly through central London to St Paul's cathedral for the funeral service. Sir Winston died six days ago, following a stroke earlier in the month from which he never regained consciousness. A total of 321,360 people filed past thecatafalqueduring the three days of lying-in-state. Today, millions around the world watched the funeral procession at home and abroad as television pictures were beamed from 40 BBC cameras placed along the route. The mourners were led by Sir Winston's wife, Lady Clementine Churchill, his son Randolph and daughters Mary Soames and Lady Sarah Audley. The Queen and other members of the royal family, the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, and representatives of 112 countries packed into the cathedral for the service. The funeral cortege was accompanied by a 19-gun salute and an RAF fly-past as it began the journey to Sir Winston's final resting place. At Tower Hill, the coffin was piped aboard the launch Havengore for the voyage up the Thames. From Waterloo, it was placed onto a train drawn by a Battle of Britain locomotive named Winston Churchill. Thousands gathered to pay tribute at wayside stations. At many football matches a two-minute silence was observed. Sir Winston was finally laid to rest in the Oxfordshire parish churchyard of Bladon, close to Blenheim Palace where he was born 90 years before, with only family members present. The attack on Al Khafji came as a surprise and the US military commander, General Norman Schwarzkopf, said it showed the Iraqis have "plenty more fight in them". He was speaking to reporters as the first detailed assessment of the Allies' progress in the war was made public. General Schwarzkopf said the Allies now have total air supremacy. He said: "The Iraqis have abandoned centralised control of air defence within Iraq and Kuwait, a very important point." Ammunition dumps have been destroyed and the main supply route between Baghdad and Kuwait disrupted. Saddam Hussein's elite troops, the Republican Guard, have come under sustained aerial bombardment At sea, 46 Iraqi ships have now been sunk. More warplanes and ships have taken refuge in Iran. General Schwarzkopf said: "The simple fact of the matter is that now every time an Iraqi airplane takes off the ground it is running away, as a result [we] have now claimed air supremacy." Reports from the northern Gulf suggest the Iraqis have begun dumping oil into the sea at Mina Al Bakr. Iraqi shelling has already created a slick measuring 50 miles long by 12 miles wide (80km by 19km) which could seriously hamper any seaborne defence of Kuwait. In his state of the union address to the American people following news of the first land battle, President George Bush praised the troops serving in the Gulf. He said, "There is no-one more devoted more committed to the hard work of freedom than every soldier and sailor, every marine and coastguardsman, every man and woman now serving in the Persian Gulf." |
