For decades, this operation was prepared in the smallest detail. A millimeter choreography, from the proclamation of King Charles to the burial of the sovereign in the Saint-George chapel at the castle of Windsor.
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The death of Queen Elizabeth II to the “London Bridge” operation. Prepared since the 1960s, supervised by the sovereign herself, it details by the menu the events of the ten days which will lead to its funeral.
All the royal, political and diplomatic choreography is described in a millimeter manner, so as not to leave the slightest risk that emotion leads to a misstep. Everything is described, bells that will sound, including that of Big Ben, whose hammer is covered with leather for the occasion in order to deafen the sound, until the printing of the tickets provided for the guests present at the funeral. The documents of Operation London Bridge unroll chronologically, from D -Day to D + 10. The date of the funeral is not yet public. King Charles III announced, Friday, September 9, that the royal family would respect mourning up to seven days after the burial.
Day J. “London Bridge is down”
The “London Bridge is down” code was broadcast by the Palais officials who informed the Prime Minister of Death. In 1952, on the death of George VI, the father of the Queen, the code was “Hyde Park Corner”, and the idea was then not to leak the information with telephone operators. Current technologies, with secure lines, no longer require these precautions, but the principle has been maintained.
The media were informed by a press release sent to Press Association, the British news agency. The BBC, which has repeated the event regularly for years, has been informed directly. Only three editors were empowered to order the presenter or the presenter to announce the news. The sentence to pronounce was written for ages and was exactly pronounced, Thursday, September 8, by the presenter Huw Edwards: “You look at the BBC, from London. We interrupt these programs to announce the death of His Majesty the Queen. The Reine Elizabeth II is dead. “The instructions were strict: no” Breaking News “headband, no sensational tone; It was a question of reading an “official announcement”, not exceptional information.
At Downing Street, the Prime Minister’s residence, Union Jack is at half mast. The goal was to lower the flag within ten minutes of the announcement of the death. Worried, the senior officials preparing the London Bridge operation had alerted, in one of the preparatory documents, that they did not have a special employee responsible for full -time flags and that they risk not holding the deadline.
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