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Norman D. Landing


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Hi Robert, thanks for adding to the post , it sure is nice finding stuff locally, only last week there

were little piles of things washed ashore on Utah beach. Whilst walking the beach a friend found

a solid sand ball which is a weird effect where sand has moulded and bound itself to items over

the years when he broke this open it contained a WWII U.S. flashlight battery. He's taken it back

to England with him.

 

Even whole rifles are sometimes found in this condition, and if you visit Utah beach there are

examples in both the museum and the Roosevelt cafe opposite.

 

Hi Erwin, let me know when you are around here, would be happy to meet up.

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, July 23 2008

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post-344-1217681206.jpg

 

Hi Fellow Members, I was out yesterday on my daily cycle around the village attempting to keep the waistline

in line, and for the first time in the six months since I spotted the Panther wheel at the side of a barn I saw the

gates open and the owner inside the area around the barn.

 

So I introduced myself and asked if the wheel was for sale, well I struck lucky and did a deal with him and went

and collected it today. It has suffered some rusting over the years it has been there, but I should be able to wire

brush some of this off and treat with anti-rust and maybe repaint in correct color.

 

Nice local find and will look good leaning against my garden wall out the rear. Need to now find a couple of track

links to stand it on.

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, July 2 2008

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That's a really nice find.

Any idea from what unit that Panther was?

 

I'd do like Johan suggests too.

Just try and keep the rust away.

 

Erwin

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Hi Johan, I wondered if to do it the way Allan has with the ones at his house which you

must have seen there. They were rusty when he got those ones and he cleaned and

re-painted.

 

Hi Erwin, thanks for post, I would think pretty impossible to find out now, in 1944 about

twenty fields from my house it was a collection point for all shot up armored vehicles, both

German, French captured used by Germans and also American tanks fighting through this

area, this is were the wheels came from, he had two, but I missed out on the second one

he had already promised it to someone else.

 

Hoping to post something else this evening.

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, July 2 2008.

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post-344-1217695181.jpg

 

Hi Fellow members and readers, I was walking Utah beach last weekend with friends and I picked

up some of these sand ' lumps ' to explain to them how the sand has gripped and solidified onto objects

over the last sixty years. I mentioned these lumps a few posts ago when another friends opened one

and found a WWII flashlight battery.

 

So shown here is one of these lumps this one a little larger than a WWII grenade or a large clenched fist.

I took several of these home to chip them open and show my friends the contents, sadly nothing so interesting

as the flashlight battery.

 

The following posts will show the contents.

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, Aug 2 2008

 

P.s. apologies my previous two posts are dated July, I was a month out it's now August ???, Johan

you picked me up on this previously, but you have missed this months

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post-344-1217695439.jpg

 

So Readers, here's the sand lump being chipped open. The metal that comes out is initially

a powder black color, however after a few hours exposed to oxygen they revert to a rust

finish if not cleaned and anti rust coated.

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, Aug 2 2008.

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post-344-1217695698.jpg

 

Cont. Hi Readers, here's the large threaded bolt that was found in the centre of this sand lump,

actually found two of these bolts different sizes both with no nuts, but fibres of wood around the

one, which has a captive nut head on it rather than a wrench head.

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, Aug 2 2008.

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post-344-1217696046.jpg

 

Cont. Hi Readers, this last curved sand lump holds a length of fibre rope which can be seen

protruding out of the one end, note how much has moulded and joined to this rope over the

years even sea shells becoming captive. It takes some striking with a metal hammer to break

or dislodge this moulded lump from the object covered.

 

Have a good weekend everyone.

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, Aug 2 2008.

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Hehe cool thats pretty interesting!

 

 

Hi Blake_E., thanks for the comment thumbsup.gif , I think lots of people would pay little attention to the sand lumps on the beach, I have been down to Utah again today with some friends over from Jersey, let them find a few on the beach to break open and see what's in there. think.gif

 

It pays to stand back and put your fingers in your ears in case one of them is explosive pinch.gif:lol:

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, Aug 3 2008

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stonewaller

Hi ken, Spoke to darren today, seemed to have a hell of a time! Probably gunna head over in a few months myself for the 2nd time this year. I'm totally addicted to the place!

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Hi ken, Spoke to darren today, seemed to have a hell of a time! Probably gunna head over in a few months myself for the 2nd time this year. I'm totally addicted to the place!

 

Hi Stonewaller, totally addicted ????? be careful you will end up wanting to live here. :lol:

 

I really miss all those nose to tail traffic jams, paying to park everywhere, car tax. etc etc. crying.gif

 

Last weekend the English television said that on Sunday there were sixty thousand people on Bournemouth beach, I don't think there is even twenty thousand people in the whole of Normandy, keep that quiet or people will want to move here. :lol:

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, Aug 3 2008.

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Hi Fellow Members, the following shots are of a storage bunker I found at the side of the road in a secluded

wooden area, it's well off the normal tracks that most Normandy visitors pass through on the way to the well known

museums etc.

 

There are no house or such close to it so no one yet that I could make enquiries with, all I will be able to state is

what I saw. My guess on this is that it was some form of munition or explosives store, there appears to have been two large doors on the front but possibly being metal these have disappeared elsewhere, probably some French farmers barn has benefited from them. A hundred feet in either direction from the store are small solid bunkers which may well have stored the fuses or such.

 

All this is within a few miles of the V-1 launching ramps that I posted a while back on this section. Also it's a few miles inland from the beach area, so it could have been the ammunition store for a coastal gun, the bunker not obvious whilst I was there, more investigation needed. Being close to the roadside it would have been easy to load or take out out things from the store.

 

The closest location I can give for this is midway between Cherbourg and Valognes on the route N13 off to the coastal side is the village of Ruffosses it is on the road leading towards this village

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, Aug 4 2008

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Cont...... This is a side view of the storage bunker, showing the depth, inside it is roughly the size of a WWII troop carrier type vehicle.

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, Aug 4 2008.

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Cont..... this is one of the smaller bunkers which are located further along the road in both directions from the store bunker. The metal doors have been taken from these as well.

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, Aug 4 2008.

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Lt. RGFrank, Hi Robert, thanks for joining in again, yep pleased I got the wheel, wish it had been in a little better condition, but pretty sure it will survive me anyway. crying.gif

 

Hope you do make it over here someday, it all has to be seen before it all deteriorates more or such, as some of the sites that change out of all recognition each year as time moves on, mostly by interference of man rather than nature.

 

I found a report in a 1946 magazine article that stated that at that time the French army were blowing up and destroying forty bunkers a day. So when you do visit although you may see some bunkers, they may well not be as numerous as just after D-Day and the war.

 

Yesterday I found a 101st memorial, again off the beaten track one I have not seen before, so I need to go back again with my camera, maybe my next report. thumbsup.gif

 

Word of warning to any members hoping to get over here next year for the 65th anniversary, it is being said that virtually all campsites and hotels are already booked, so make plans if your going to. ;)

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, Aug 4 2008.

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Hi Forum Members, if you have been following this thread then you will have read earlier that one of my friends died from cancer back in June. He very kindly left me what ever militaria he still possessed when he died, and I have been showing a few of these item on the thread.

 

So today this is the sixth item I am posting from his collection and it is all of the loose patches he had not framed, 130 of them, there is also around 230 or so which are framed but not shown today. I hope to choose a few of the more unusual unframed ones in the next few posts and show these on this thread.

 

So for any of the patch collectors I hope you enjoy this photo and the forthcoming ones.

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, Aug 5 2008.

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Weren't these bunkers for ammunition or troops?

Or for equipment storage?

I've seen similar in the Calais area.

Sometimes you could even see where the ramp stood on which V-1s were launched towards England.

Thanks again for showing us these things.

 

Very nice collection of patches too.

Any Armor or TD? (You know I had to ask, hehe).

 

Erwin

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post-344-1217948118.jpg

 

Very nice collection of patches too.

Any Armor or TD? (You know I had to ask, hehe). think.gif

 

Erwin

 

Hi Erwin, good to hear from you, here you are, here's a few armored patches, now will

that stop you crying in your beer tonite wanting to know if there were any TD patches. pinch.gif

 

I promised myself not to look at this damn site for eight hours so I could get on with some

other work, but it just keeps drawing me back to see what's new that's been posted. :unsure:

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, Aug 5 2008.

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Hi Forum Members, here are a few of the more unusual ones out of the bunch I featured in the last couple of posts.

 

 

2nd Inf Div. black felt / cheese cloth back

 

1st Inf Div. embroidered / Greenback

 

56th Cav Brigade. embroiderd khaki twill / turn back and sewn edge

 

41st Inf Div. Hand sewn on felt / Muslin back

 

45th Inf Div. Felt / Felt

 

36th Inf Div. Embroiderd khaki twill / oversewn cut edge

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, Aug 5 2008.

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Cont........... Here are the rears of the patches in the previous post.

 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, Aug 5 2008.

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