Maybe it has something to do with the recent tragedy in Cumberland earlier this week, and if that's taken people's mind away that's fine. But June has a few significant dates for me to remember: namely, 6 June, 21 June and 28 June- and I can’t bring myself to forget. June 6, today, is of course the date of the commencement of Operation Overlord, or the D-Day landings- a monumentally important day in World War Two, and the beginning of the end for Hitler.

21 June is of course the summer solstice, which I will blog about when the time comes.

28 June is, in one way both the beginning and the end of the First World War- on June 28 1914, Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, sparking off the war, and exactly five years later on 28 June 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed, ending the state of war between Germany and the Allies.

But why so little D-Day celebratory jubilation today? I looked at the BBC homepage- nothing. The BFP news page- nothing. I walked into a nursing home where every single resident was alive 66 years ago- nothing. Is 66 an unlucky number, or is it just inconsequential? Do these world-changing dates only mean anything when the anniversary ends with a ‘0’ or a ‘5’? Possibly. It was 65 years since VE Day in May and there were many things on to celebrate that.

I write this also because I only found out the other day that a great uncle of mine was at two famous WWII sites- the Dunkirk evacuation (which also finished in June 1940), and D Day just over four years later. He passed away several years ago.

June seems to be a very popular month for warfare- if Napoleon and Hitler had known that they may have won their battles in Russia... Fortunately, in 1944, we did. Bloody war.