D-Day 2015

[housil]

So here are some of my 1.700 Normandy pictures:

First stop over, after driving 1.100km, was the monastery of Le Mont-Saint-Michel

Next was St Mere Eglise you may know from the movie "The longest Day".

Here where "John Steele" hung from the church tower with his parachute started the very first fightings of D-Day.

They have a nice Airborne Museum

(I took that picture with my drone)
The roofs of the buildings are shaped as a parachute canopy and a wing.

Our Hotel

"Auberge John Steele", that building was already there back in 1944



To be continued...

[Norton]

Great Photos thanks for posting.
By the way do you have any tank pictures?

[housil]

Great Photos thanks for posting.
By the way do you have any tank pictures?

Yes, this was just the first day out of 6...

So from St Mere Eglise, the US troops had to head towards Carentan and had to take it, defended by German "Green Devils" - Paratroopers with anti tank guns etc.
There were airdrops at "Ste Come du Mont", some of you may know it as "Dead mans corner".

The US airborns had to wait for the tanks, coming from Utah beach as support

When the first light tank came to that road crossings (above), it got knocked out by a German Panzerfaust that killed the whole crew, with the commander standing in the turret.

They made that place to the "Dead Mans Corner" Museum. Back in 1944 it was the German HQ and an aid post with a nice display inside:

So we went to Carentan

Speaking of "BoB":

In Carentan, there is that "Normandy Tank Museum" located at a former airfield

Inside:

German Panzer IV

[housil]

After a night in Saint Lo


we drove to Omaha Beach

You all guys know "Saving private Ryan".
Remember, when the Germans shot with their MG42 at the oncoming US troops. That real story happened here, at "Widerstandsnest 62, WN62"

View from Omaha Beach towards WN62

[housil]

So from Omaha Beach, we went to the US cemetery, you know from the beginning scenen of "Saving Privat Ryan"

WN62 was very next to it. It wasn´t just a foxhole but a whole German emplacement with artillery in bunkers, MGs, trenches, anti tank trenches etc...

Their guns could fire at the oncoming troops at Omaha Beach, so it was a great threat to the troops.
Gunners aiming view

Beach view at Omaha Beach

On top of the area, there is now a monument:

The remaining trenches and shelter entrances

A plan of WN62 with their weaponry

[housil]

After Omaha Beach and WN 62, we made it to "Point Du Hoc".

Point Du Hoc was the highest point between Omaha and Utah Beach - a perfect place for an observation and artillery emplacement. The Rangers had to take that place to fight the threat

To be continued....

[Vlaanderen]

Hi Housil,

Excellent photo's my friend.

I spent two weeks in Normandy last June for the 70th anniversary with my Landrover Lightweight, the first week in the British/Canadian sector, the second week on the American beaches etc.

I will dig out a few photo's I took at the American Memorial at Colleville with a very interesting story regarding "Saving Private Ryan.

Will return soon.

Regards, Norman.

[Vlaanderen]

Hi Housil and all forum members,

As promised, photo's and story regarding the film "Saving Private Ryan".

I spent two weeks in Normandy last June for the 70th anniversary of the landings. The first week I was camping at Chateau Martragny, close to the British/Canadian sector with my Military Vehicle Trust group, who had made the journey from the North of England, 30 miles North of Liverpool and Manchester.

For the second week I was invited to camp in a fellow British Ex Military Landrover Defender 90 owners back garden, which used to be an orchard, 3,500 square metres!!!!. We had "met" through the Ex Military Landrover Owners web site.

Vince is a French national who at the time worked at the Normandy American Memorial and Cemetery at Colleville as a tour guide!!!!!!!.

I visited the Normandy American Memorial and Cemetery at Omaha Beach, Colleville Sur Mer, together with Vince and his family, receiving a personal guided tour.

The cemetery is featured at the beginning and the end of “Saving Private Ryan”. A World War II veteran, played by Harrison Young, accompanied by his family, makes his way to the grave of Captain John Miller (played by Tom Hanks).

The grave does not actually exist, the headstone for Captain John Miller was a "Stage prop" and brought to the cemetery for the filming and placed on the walkway between two sections of graves.

The Captain John Miller portrayed in the movie never existed, but the Private Ryan story is based upon the true story of the Niland Brothers, two of whom are buried in this cemetery.

If you watch the film again, at the ending in the cemetery, you will see the reverse of a gravestone with a bluish blemish, over the shoulder of the actor in the background. Actually this gravestone is the only one in the cemetary with any blemish.

This photo was taken on the exact position of Captain John Millers "gravestone".

The following two photo’s are of the front side of the two graves in the background, both next to each other;

Richard E.Miller and James A.Ryan??. The book had been written, also the screenplay for the film, interesting, very interesting. It has been said that this coincidence was only noticed when the director of the film veiwed the film shots being taken from different angles

My most sincere thanks to the staff of the Normandy American Memorial and Cemetery for the warm welcome, but especially to Vince for the personal guided tour.

This was just part of the “Holiday Of A Lifetime” which I had planned for two years.

Hoping this is of interest to the forum members.

Regards, Norman.

[housil]

As both of my Grandpas have survived WW2, there is nobody I have to visit on a German cemetery. But there was one grave, I want to visit.
Here at the German cemetery at La Cambe

is the grave of German Tiger Tank Ace:

[housil]

Via Caen, the biggest city in the Normandy,



we drove towards the most eastern sector of the invasion, "Sword Beach", the British sector.

Here was a German gun battery at "Merville".
That gun battery was a great threat to the troops at Sword Beach so it had to be taken the night before.
600 British soldier were sent in gliders and airborns to take that battery in the night of June 5th. At least, only 75 arrived to take the battery but never made it, but they kept the Germans so busy in defending, they couldn´t fire their guns...

The gun battery was never destroyed, so it is today still in the condition as back in June 1944

We were there at June 6th, right for some ceremonies with lot´s of reenactors, veterans, politicians etc.

Due to a lucky "accident", I got a written permit to fly over the battery and taking video of the emplacement with all the ceremonies

Casemate #3, open gun pit and German camp display