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Norman D. Landing


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General Apathy

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Robert Sarvis USAAF, Cont ................

 

The crash site of Roberts Lancaster at the roadside, the fench line has been curved

out into the field and water now fills the area of the crash.

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, Oct 13 2008.

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Robert Sarvis USAAF, Cont ................

 

The headstone of Robert Sarvis's grave at Colleville sur Mer, Omaha Beach,

a tragic consequence of war.

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, Oct 13 2008.

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Very interesting story and thanks for paying tribute to this man.

 

Did they recover the rest of his remains too?

I know it is a morbid question, sorry.

 

Erwin

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Hi Robert, thanks for taking the time to read the posts, pleased that you find them interesting, I hope to try and find more out about this last posting on Robert Sarvis.

 

 

Hi Erwin, I think most of Robert Sarvis's body was recovered at the time of the crash that's why there is a grave and headstone to him at Colleville, can't say why they would miss his one foot and leg bone. However sixty years later with modern mechanical diggers I am sure they could easily dig deeper down, originally it may well have been with hand shovels.

 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, Oct 14 2008.

 

Thanks also to other forum members who read my reports from Normandy

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Hi Fellow Members, time to post something else, this is from my collection. Around eight years ago I was attending

an outdoor show at the Maryland proving ground. There was a dealer there with a table full of assorted miltaria, I stood there for half and hour staring at his display, the whole table was astounding, and I was hesitant to ask prices it all appeared high dollar stuff. pinch.gif

 

Eventually another guy came over and stood by the side of me and looked at the items, he picked up a brass bound ' Family Bible' type book and flicked through it and it contained fifty or sixty U.S. civil war photographs of officers and all with inked autographs. He enquired of the price and was knocked back at how cheap it was, so he held onto that and asked the price of around eight or ten WWI USMC officers peaked caps with EGA's on the front. Again the prices were so cheap, I had been looking at these caps and had been afraid of asking the price. Well even this guy was amazed and asked why was everything so cheap, and the dealer said he was clearing out the families home and everything had to go. So the purchaser grabbed all the caps as well, and I had lucked out. crying.gif

 

So I just threw a question at him about the price of this frame with a squadron patch in and the other insignia, he came back with twenty five so I thought was that twenty five hundred or what, he said no twenty five dollars, so I pulled that out and paid him and picked up the frame, I went to walk off and he said don't forget the other frame. I turned back towards him and he handed me a second frame the same size with another related item to the same airman.

 

I then realised that I could have probably bought his entire table for less than 800 dollars w00t.gif , I was so amazed I walked away shell shocked, I think I was worried how would I ship it all back to England, there was far too much to carry.

 

So here is the frame belonging to 2Lt. Domenis ' Donny' Palese of the 752nd Bomb squadron / 458 Bomb Group out of Horsham St Faith Field, near Norwich, England, I think his service number is 02063462 but not certain. The watch has damage from a very small flak fragment which has passed through the glass and into the watch itself. The 8th and the squadron patch are both British made, the watch is a Bulova A-11, the wings are only marked sterling. wink.gif

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, May 25 2008

 

hello ken-re Donny Palese would you believe i knew him. We stayed at his beach house in HARVEY CEDARS,NJ. in 1980, he was a judge in the us legal system.His beach house was one of those typical us beach houses built on stilts and underneath was a storage area.Upon pearing thru the windw of this area one day we saw all his wartime photos etc pinned on the wall.When i tried ask him about his wartime roll in the 8th air force all he would say was he was stationed at Horsham st Faiths and flew b-24s,other than that he didnt want to talk about it.We were staying at his house because my wifes life long american penfriend was afriend of thiers.Icould ask her to find out more about him if you want.Talk about coincedences, there was 7,000,000 american men under arms in ww2 and you bought the memorabilier of one i met. How about that!. Regards Ken, your old mate from Lincoln. Lee, k.

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hello ken-re Donny Palese would you believe i knew him. We stayed at his beach house in HARVEY CEDARS,NJ. in 1980, he was a judge in the us legal system.His beach house was one of those typical us beach houses built on stilts and underneath was a storage area.Upon peering thru the window of this area one day we saw all his wartime photos etc pinned on the wall. When i tried ask him about his wartime roll in the 8th air force all he would say was he was stationed at Horsham st Faiths and flew b-24s,other than that he didn't want to talk about it.We were staying at his house because my wife's life long American penfriend was a friend of theirs. I Could ask her to find out more about him if you want. Talk about coincidences, there was 7,000,000 American men under arms in ww2 and you bought the memorabilia of one I met. How about that!. Regards Ken, your old mate from Lincoln. Lee, k.

 

Lee, Hello my old mate from Lincoln, so where's that $450 dollars you still owe me, no seriously it's a beer you owe me.

 

Well, Well, Well it looks like we both moved out of the dark side to lighter locations, me to France you to America

I am pleased to be out of there, 1000 years to build a decent civilised country, 15 years to bugger it.

 

So on the up side, hope you are well, will send you a personal email and catch up with what your up to and where you are.

 

So down to Donny Palese how strange that we are both English, talking about an American and you are the only one to come up with any information on him. We lived a 100 miles apart in England and now we are over 3.000 miles apart and we have connection to the same serviceman, how strange. I would love to hear more about him, which state and town he lived in etc. Possibly the other forum members would like to hear about him as well, if you can post it on here.

 

Lee, Thanks for the input on my post about Mr Palese, good to hear from you too.

 

Cheers ( Lewis )

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, Oct 25 2008.

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Hi Forum Members, I know it's been a few weeks since I posted anything and my apologies for that, unbelievably it's quite a hectic life living in Normandy. Just yesterday I had a knock on the front door and there stood a guy I had not seen for thirty years, so eight hours later and fifteen cups of coffee he finally left. Quite fun catching up on thirty years.

 

LONDON CALLING - LONDON CALLING - JAQUES HAS A LONG MOUSTACHE - JAQUES HAS A LONG MOUSTACHE

 

Here is a 1940s photograph frame containing a wedding photograph of bride and groom with hidden radio in the rear, behind the frame surround. It appears to have been intended that the radio would be hidden in a wall cavity with the photo on the wall covering it, and hide it from observation during searches by the occupation forces. w00t.gif

 

The surround of the photograph appears to be possibly a ' faux ' snake skin print, the radio concealed behind is very basic, and minimum controls etc. Strung across the bottom are lines and lines of copper wire, not being a radio enthusiast I cannot say if this to do with the aerial or tuning.

 

This was found locally in my area, however I acquired it from a friend who lives near me in a minor militaria exchange between us.

 

Cheers ( Lewis )

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Amazing the lengths people will go to resist the occupiers. Us here in the US don't get it sometimes. Having not lost our freedom like some counties we don't support the people that keep our freedom for us enough. WWII was so long ago now theres not many left that remember what a stuggle countries went through to preserve/regain their freedom. robert

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Hi Robert & 517th, thanks for reading and adding to the post.

 

It's strange to us now that we don't have to hide our radio, it's just sat there waiting to be turned on and off as we want. Imagine now 65 years on if we were occupied and we had to try and hide our computers and screens. It was a different world.

 

Cheers ( Lewis )

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Hi Forum Readers, a number of posts back I added a few photos of the new USN monument unveiled at Utah beach in September this year.

 

Again I add one of the photographs of the new USN monument, however please look to the left and in the background there is a pink cafe, currently named the Roosevelt. It is across the road from the Utah beach museum, which itself started life in an abandoned German bunker, the bunker is harder to see now as the museum has grown so much, with a newer facade on the front covering the bunker.

 

Right, back to the pink colored cafe, this building was located in this position back in June 1944 and was possibly a farmhouse prior to the war. When the German's occupied the area they built a command bunker at the rear of the cafe and tried to blend it into the main building to hide from reconnaissance photos by the allies.

 

The second photo shows the bunker in the few days after D-day with three G.I.s sat outside and a pile of abandoned life belts. ( back in 1974 I found one of this type of lifebelts buried in the beach and donated to the Utah museum ) On the outside of the bunker were painted window frames as part of the deception, these painted 'windows' are still evident today if visiting the cafe. If you look at the right of the photograph there is a Dodge ' Command' car, over behind that is where the bunker stands that was turned into the museum.

 

Another point of interest to look at, if you are facing the cafe, and walk down the right hand outside fence line you will see a number of German barbed wire stakes incorporated into the garden brick wall.

 

A few fields over behind the cafe was the 4th Infantry headquarters, and these fields were also the location of the first field hospital and temporary grave site.

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, November 19 2008

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Hi Forum Readers, whilst on the subject of Utah beach and the area, I would like to point out a feature to be seen if you walk a little way along the beach from the museum.

 

If you stand facing the sea with the USN monument on your left, and the museum on the right, there is a pathway between these two features down which you can walk to the sea between the dunes. At the end of the pathway walk left along the beach by the dunes and approximately 100 -150 yards is part of the original sea wall that's still visible, covered in shell and spang marks.

 

It was in front of this sea wall ( June 6 1974 ) that I found the lifebelt which I donated to the museum and will show in the next post.

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, November 19 2008.

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Hi Forum Readers, Cont.............

 

Here is the photograph of the lifebelt mentioned in the previous post as found in front of the sea wall shown and donated to the Utah museum.

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, November 19 2008.

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Great stuff, as usual! thanks so much for all the postings. If I ever get over there, I'll have a head start on what to see and where to go! thumbsup.gif

 

Hi Meatcan, pleased to hear that the posts may be of use to you if your over visiting the area, hope to add more

things and places to see over the winter period, ready for next summers visitors. ;)

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, November 20 2008.

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Lewis. If I'm ever lucky enough to make it over we will go to the cafe and I'll buy. Robert

 

 

Hi Robert, I nearly choked when I read the above message you posted 'we will go to the cafe and I will buy ', I thought whoa he's gonna to buy the whole cafe think.gif , well it is up for sale the guy is retiring.

 

However after reading it again this evening I understood it as meant, and and not disappointed that your not buying the cafe crying.gif , but a cup of coffee, GREAT I will join you in that. thumbsup.gif Cheers Lewis

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, November 21 2008.

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Yep I should have said "buy Lunch". Keep forgetting even tho its English to both of us we sometimes interpet it differently on different sides of the pond. Robert

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Yep I should have said "buy Lunch". Keep forgetting even tho its English to both of us we sometimes interpet it differently on different sides of the pond. Robert

 

Hi Robert, well this gets better my English is good enough to realise that lunch is better than coffee, thanks for the offer, sounds good to me, and I will buy you dinner, your a good egg sir.

 

Cheers ( Lewis )

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Hi Forum Readers, if you have been following this thread then you will have read of a long time friend Warwick who died during the summer, he left me his militaria. I have posted a number of these items, hopefully some of the stuff that is seldom seen.

 

So tonight I add the seventh item from his collection, it's six folder pages containing eighteen sheets of ' T ' shirt decals, these are are all early WWII designed to boost the American population. They were applied by heated clothes iron. Apologies that they are all displayed facing in different directions, but this is how they came to me.

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, November 28 2008.

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Cont........................... three more sheets of decals.

 

 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondents, November 28 2008.

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Hi Ken.

 

Are any of these marked?

 

There was a set produced circa 1942 - they are marked "P.P.Co." which I think stood for the Posstamp Publishing Company. At least 24 of the iron-on transfers featured Disney-designed insignia. I have around 10 or so in my collection.

 

Posstamp was also the company that made the gummed insignia stamps and booklets distributed in 1942 by the Hearts newspaper chain - there were 5 volumes in that set, each containing room for 50 different stamps. Of the 250 stamps, 157 featured Disney emblems.

 

Love the patriotic imagery! I have seen these iron-ons by themselves unused, as well as applied to pillowcases, hankies and t-shirts.

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Amazing the lengths people will go to resist the occupiers. Us here in the US don't get it sometimes. Having not lost our freedom like some counties we don't support the people that keep our freedom for us enough. WWII was so long ago now theres not many left that remember what a stuggle countries went through to preserve/regain their freedom. robert

Thank you for stating this.

 

I have the feeling that, given recent and current world events (as of November 28th, 2008), we may well begin noticing an increase in attention span in this regard.

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Greetings Ken, just stumbled on your excellent thread and spent some time reading your great postings. It is a dull Sunday morning here and another forum I use is down so had withdrawal symptoms. You will not recall me however I bought from you years back when I was heavily into collecting wartime American gear. My main interests have been Special Forces, British and American (Jedburgh, SOE, OSS etc) also assisting with our Museum at the former RAF Harrington. The website is www.harringtonmuseum.org.uk I liked your posting on the radio hidden behind the photograph, a very neat piece indeed. Anyway Ken, just wanted to say Hi and thank you for sharing your news from Normandy, Kind regards, Clive.

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