Normandy-Now and Then...

[madblacksnake]

Like many of you already know, a trip to a WWII battle site is an amazing experience, especially if it's somewhere you've always wanted to visit. For me it has always been D-Day, thanks to the films, 'The Longest Day', 'Saving Private Ryan' and more recently 'Band of Brothers' (DVD's worn thin). So Normandy it was. The trip was a bit 'last minute.com' so in the 3...yes 3 days I had to prepare I crammed as much research as I could, scared of missing something. Packed my cameras (photography being my second love) and off we went. What an amazing experience visited as many places as I could, took so many photos I'd probably crash your site if I tried to upload them all. In the 3 weeks I've been back I've had plenty of time to look in more detail at what I saw and photographed.Managed to miss quite a bit, 1 trip is by no means enough. You don't realize until you look into things more closely that you have driven past a lot places without understanding their importance.Well, maybe next time. Anyway, what I tried to capture was the 'walking in the footsteps of heroes' cliquche. It is truly amazing how little Normandy has changed.To start with (be patient, these things take time) are a series of shots taken in Carentan.This is a shot of the 101st Airbourne assembled in the, Place de la Republique, taken around the 16th June 1944. [ATTACH]101st Airbourne Carentan web.jpg
How the same seen looks today
d-day 339 web.jpg
The same location from a different angel, this time including the 'Memorial for the Dead' from the First World War.
d-day 337 web.jpg

Mem of dead Carentan web.jpg
And finally, my attempt at bringing the passage of 64 years into one frame.
Mem of dead Carentan web1.jpg[/ATTACH]

[Redzs]

nice pics m8

[Dave]

Great post mad
A coupla summers ago I had a pitiful two days only to hare round Normandy WWII sites. After a failed attempt to get to Monte Cassino this year I am putting my sites on Normandy again...

I never made it to Carentan but can add a few rare-ish shots/scans of Carentan I have been looking for an excuse to post somewhere...

[madblacksnake]

Nice one Dave. No excuses needed really, Carentan was the site of some fierce fighting. The 101st Airborne where tasked with taking the town which was defended by the crack 6th Regiment, of the German Second Fallschirmjager (Parachute) Division, under the command of General Ramke. It took the 101st several days of hard fighting before finally taking Carentan on 13th June. All this considered, the town has remained pretty much how it was. If you do get the chance it's well worth a visit. I made the same mistake you did by trying to cram everything into to short a time frame looks like we're both gonna have to go back!!! In case you don't already know.... the shot you posted of what appears at first glance to be a Sherman tank, is actually a 'M-7 Priest' of the 14th Armoured Field Battalion/2nd Armoured Division. driving along Rue Holgate at the junction with Paris-Cherbourg railway, the bombed building was used as the 101st "E" Aid station and is still there today.

[Jim]

I remember when i visited Carentan, we went into the Tourist Office asking about the history of the place and if they had some text that we could use to tour the place, the young Lady look at me stunned! History, not much history here in Carentan she said, i recall mentioning the 101st to her and again i got a blank look, i had a look around the office for items i thought could help me and left dejected ..

Great thread, with some excellent pictures ..

[madblacksnake]

Yeah... I know the feeling Jim, I actually printed off some of the 1944 pics and took them with me, picked me out an old-timer in the market square who looked like he'd been sat in the same spot since D-Day... showed him the pics, he muttered summit in French and pointed the place out to me (which was 50yds behind him). Tried the tourist office also, (3 times), each time she was setting the record for 'ignoring the English tourist whilst chatting on the phone to her mates'......she won Gold...I left her to it....

[madblacksnake]

Omaha beach 2008.....Dog-Green Sector. Yeah...Yeah that is me (now you know where the 'black snake' part of my user-name comes from) Anyhoo, more importantly, over my left shoulder is Exit-Draw 1. Which was covered by Widerstandsnest (WN) 71.d-day 101 web.jpg
PICT2275.jpg
This emplacement housed an 88mm gun which is still in place today. you can also see the anti-tank wall that crossed the road to the left. Today the bunker is topped with a monument to the national guard.

WN71-88mm today web.jpg

PICT2183 web.jpg
This emplacement housed a 37mm gun that could be switched to fire on Charlie Sector to its rear, you can see the firing slit through the opening and what looks like a barrage balloon on top of the bunker. There is also a tobruk for an MG on top of this site, which now has a garage built onto the rear.
d-day 091 web.jpg

[Dave]

Now there I did make it to. I have a movie somewhere - me & my old dad got chased off the beach by a twister - in August! From your photo I think we used exit draw 1.
Curious that grounded barrage balloon. Perhaps the same one as here, found with the caption:
A balloon flown by the 320th protects the E-3 exit at Omaha Beach on D+2 (Easy Red sector).



EDIT: nah, doh, easy red vs dog green, oh well.

PS I didn't spot that Priest, 'thought it was a Sherman. I wonder why "priest" ? Something to do with "last rites " maybe...

[Jim]

This picture resembles the crossroad at St-mere-Eglise..




The balloons were steadily removed from the skies when the Germans were well beaten in France, thou they were still left flying around Ports .. The picture of the one lying on top of the bunker does make you wonder why ...

[madblacksnake]

As far as I know the shot with the balloon on the bunker was taken as late as September 1944, could be wrong though.
Found another shot of this street taken a bit further away than your one, it is Rue Holgate with the junction ofAvenue de 101st Airbourne in Carentan.Attachment 49