Norman D. Landing

[Dogsbody]

On 9/21/2022 at 10:40 PM, General Apathy said:

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We moved on and saw several other sites, however the one below is interesting alongside this wooded lane the German dug a large defensive ditch to defend the side of Periers that the American attack would come from.  The ditch is to the right of the photo at various spots along the ditch it appears to have cut-outs into the embankment which would be where the machine guns would be sited. 

 

As we stood looking out across the fields from this position a friends wife goaded me to find her a shell or bullet case,  the other vehicles moved off and I lingered a few minutes longer and then uncovered the remains of a vehicle / trailer or such, unfortunately seventy years too late to identify the piece.  I intend to revisit this wooded lane and ditch again for further investigation.  

 

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Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent,  September 21  2022.

 

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Picture perfect (the first picture, that is 🙂)

[Dogsbody]

20 hours ago, General Apathy said:

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Hi Salvage Sailor

 

Thanks lovely shot, I added a similar image back in 2021, sadly my friend took the shot before all four wheels were off the ground . . . . . .

 

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Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent,  September 23  2022.

 

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Windscreen up????

[General Apathy]

37 minutes ago, Dogsbody said:

Windscreen up????

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Yup !!!,  no seat-belts, no helmets,  NO ROLL-CAGE, windscreen secondary choice . . .  for Roll-Cage.  

 

The windscreen certainly saved me from being crushed when I rolled Bob Plants Austin Champ ( Three complete rolls, my cousin fell out first roll no seat belts, nothing for him to hold onto , we both walked away unscratched,  Funny thing Jimmy Page would never go off-roading with me for some reason ).

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent,  September 24  2022.

 

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[General Apathy]

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Coffee morning with Jeeps . . . . . ( and Scooter )

 

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Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent,  September 25  2022.

 

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[LtRGFRANK]

44 minutes ago, General Apathy said:

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Coffee morning with Jeeps . . . . . ( and Scooter )

 

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Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent,  September 25  2022.

I know which one is yours. The one with the windshield down

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[General Apathy]

19 minutes ago, LtRGFRANK said:

I know which one is yours. The one with the windshield down

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Hi Robert,

 

mmmmh, methinks it's been mentioned so often . . . . . . . . . .  great powers of deduction, Sherlock. !!! 👍🏼

 

Two more friends not on the forum mailed to say the same thing, and another said ' from memory the dirty one ' . . . . . . . . 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent,  September 25  2022.

 

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[General Apathy]

20 hours ago, General Apathy said:

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Coffee morning with Jeeps . . . . . ( and Scooter )

 

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Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent,  September 25  2022.

 

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Hello Johan & Robert,

 

Thanks for adding likes to the post I made showing the Jeeps and coffee. ( Great sunshine all day yesterday, Monsoon weather today )

 

Several more scooters arrived while we were there, one of the guys told me that he's found a photo of me and my scooter taken in 1967 on a Facebook site, someone had posted '  I wonder if this guy is still alive !!!!  Dale answered that I was and added my name to the photo.

 

' The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated ', attributed to author Samuel Clemens, known by his pen name, Mark Twain.  It was great fun living during that ' MOD ' scooter generation and the huge gatherings of scooters and music weekends.  The emblem I painted on the side panels I copied from a German WWII fighter squadron.  Everyone wore M-51 fishtail parka's, however I dyed mine blue, it's still around in the shoebox here, somewhere 

 

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Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent,  September 26  2022.

 

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[mikie]

On 9/25/2022 at 4:55 AM, General Apathy said:

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Coffee morning with Jeeps . . . . . ( and Scooter )

 

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Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent,  September 25  2022.

 

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Since others have commented on the jeeps, thought I'd ask something completely different... What kind of coffee drink is that?  I'm mainly a tea drinker and only occasionally drink coffee (once or twice a year, maybe), and then usually only black. No cream, no sugar, and none of that fancy stuff.  

 

But I never know when knowing the local customs could come in handy.  Is tea a common drink there?  Someday if we win the lottery, we'll head over there and treat you to a cup. Then the reservation sign will say Mikie, Ken Reservee.

 

Mikie

[General Apathy]

42 minutes ago, mikie said:

Since others have commented on the jeeps, thought I'd ask something completely different... What kind of coffee drink is that?  I'm mainly a tea drinker and only occasionally drink coffee (once or twice a year, maybe), and then usually only black. No cream, no sugar, and none of that fancy stuff.  

 

But I never know when knowing the local customs could come in handy.  Is tea a common drink there?  Someday if we win the lottery, we'll head over there and treat you to a cup. Then the reservation sign will say Mikie, Ken Reservee.

 

Mikie

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Hi Mikie,

 

well winning the lottery might be possible if you doubled your life span to play enough times . . . . . last Friday someone in the UK won 151 million, this is about two / three weeks after someone in the UK won a very similar amount.  

 

So the drink on the left of the plaque would be the one for you, just ground coffee and water, mine is the one above the plaque, ground coffee, water and a squirt of milk, neither of us take sugar or any of that fancy stuff as you put it .

 

It's never me . . . . . . . . .  and what could I do with it anyway, maybe a grand forum get together somewhere in the USA. 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent,  September 26  2022.

 

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[Escht]

Saw this today at an antiques fair. Just had to give it a new home.

[General Apathy]

1 hour ago, Escht said:

Saw this today at an antiques fair. Just had to give it a new home.

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Hi Kevin,

 

Very nice love your Willys . . . . . . ( Jeep I'm talking about )

 

many years ago I bought a GPW version . . . . . . . . so similar, well the hood and hoops.

 

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Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent,  September 26  2022.

 

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[earlymb]

14 hours ago, Escht said:

Saw this today at an antiques fair. Just had to give it a new home.

 

Very nice, it even has remnants of a British unit sign! Those WW2-era jeep models are a collecting field on their own

[General Apathy]

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Well people, things and Jeeps evolve over the years . . . . . .

 

I loved this WWII era Jeep but was never quite happy with the later post-war unpainted wood that was added to the seats and dash, so this morning I removed the ' seat-bench ' and cut it into four pieces and made into two separate seats, so hopefully for me it's a little improvement on what was added post-war, it's evolved again.  On real Jeeps we have to replace the canvas on the seats now and again !!!

 

I do wish everyone to know that although this Jeep was made in Belgium in 1945, Johan didn't make it. 😜 !!!!

 

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Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent,  September 27  2022.

 

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[General Apathy]

1 hour ago, earlymb said:

 

Very nice, it even has remnants of a British unit sign! Those WW2-era jeep models are a collecting field on their own

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Hi earlymb,

 

well spotted and how strange that the unit insignia on Kevins Jeep,  is the same insignia I inherited from an uncle.  !!

 

From another uncle who was in the RAF I do have his cap, insignia and some small mementos, however sadly I do have vivid memories of his uniform and silk maps being thrown in the trash when I was six and we moved house. !!

 

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Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent,  September 27  2022.

 

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[Escht]

Unless I'm mistaken that's the unit marking for British 11th Armoured Division . So presumably whoever made this was something to do with Royal Army Medical Corps assigned to 11th Armoured Div. 

 

 

[cutiger83]

On 9/26/2022 at 4:43 AM, General Apathy said:

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Hello Johan & Robert,

 

Thanks for adding likes to the post I made showing the Jeeps and coffee. ( Great sunshine all day yesterday, Monsoon weather today )

 

Several more scooters arrived while we were there, one of the guys told me that he's found a photo of me and my scooter taken in 1967 on a Facebook site, someone had posted '  I wonder if this guy is still alive !!!!  Dale answered that I was and added my name to the photo.

 

' The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated ', attributed to author Samuel Clemens, known by his pen name, Mark Twain.  It was great fun living during that ' MOD ' scooter generation and the huge gatherings of scooters and music weekends.  The emblem I painted on the side panels I copied from a German WWII fighter squadron.  Everyone wore M-51 fishtail parka's, however I dyed mine blue, it's still around in the shoebox here, somewhere 

 

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Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent,  September 26  2022.

 

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Ken,

 

You are famous all over the internet! 

 

I absolutely love these wooden jeeps you and Escht have posted! Were these the famous jeep in a crate story? Hahaha!

 

...Kat

[LtRGFRANK]

On 9/25/2022 at 6:55 AM, General Apathy said:

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Coffee morning with Jeeps . . . . . ( and Scooter )

 

.

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent,  September 25  2022.

Would have been a better picture with Johanns motorcycle setting there

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[Escht]

Here is another wooden Jeep

Just for good measure some wooden tanks as well

[General Apathy]

2 hours ago, Escht said:

Here is another wooden Jeep

Just for good measure some wooden tanks as well

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Hi Kevin,

 

Methinks that the windscreen folds down on this RAF Jeep . . . . . . why hasn't it.  !!!!!

 

like the Jeep and the tanks, but I think I prefer the look of the green one to the varnished one . . . . . . 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent,  September 27  2022.

 

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[General Apathy]

3 hours ago, LtRGFRANK said:

 

Would have been a better picture with Johanns motorcycle setting there

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Hi Robert,

 

it might well have done,  but Johan would have had to set out three days earlier to be there for Sunday morning. !!!

 

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Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent,  September 27  2022.

 

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[Escht]

Maybe because it would hide the roundel.

 

Varnished tank is in fact a cigarette box,

[General Apathy]

5 hours ago, cutiger83 said:

Ken,

 

You are famous all over the internet! 

 

I absolutely love these wooden jeeps you and Escht have posted! Were these the famous jeep in a crate story? Hahaha!

 

...Kat

.

Hi Kat,

 

Well in answer to your first statement ' it amuses my daughter ' she often asks how do I know so many people, I reply ' by talking to em ' !!!!

 

And was the the Jeep in a crate that you were thinking of . . . . . this is another wartime cast aluminium model.  

 

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Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent,  September 27  2022.

 

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[Johan Willaert]

40 minutes ago, General Apathy said:

it might well have done,  but Johan would have had to set out three days earlier to be there for Sunday morning. !!!

 

 

Well, or maybe even 10 days earlier if I wanted to ride over on one of my bicycles... 😄

Been very busy these past few week(end)s... Attended a local show with the Jeep, then on to Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem for the Market Garden Commemorations and last Saturday saw the latest edition of our more or less annual antique (Military) bicycle ride...
Basically just a gathering of friends with vintage pre-1945 (Military) bicycles riding a tour on historical grounds and just catching up and having fun along the way.
We would have been 15, but predicted rain saw some people cancel their participation... and oddly the 8 that came didn't get wet all day...
This year we rode through the Battlefields of the Great War in Flanders, particularly where many of the battles between German and French and Belgian troops took place in 1914-1915...

Some photos from the Market Garden weekend and the bike ride

 

 

 

 

[Johan Willaert]

Also last week a friend and I drove over to Beek, the Netherlands, for a final visit to the WW2 Eyewitness museum which will be closing permanently next week...
An amazing collection, but Covid, a break-in and theft of a very unique Waffen SS general's uniform, and high maintenance costs have taken its toll and the owner has sold the collection.... the end of a fantastic WW2 museum....

And I've just read that the Belgian museum at the Baugnez crossroads in the Ardennes will be closing its doors too in January 2023...

below some photos and a youtube clip of the Eyewitness museum: https://www.eyewitnesswo2.nl/
 

 

 

[General Apathy]

41 minutes ago, Johan Willaert said:

 

Well, or maybe even 10 days earlier if I wanted to ride over on one of my bicycles... 😄

Been very busy these past few week(end)s... Attended a local show with the Jeep, then on to Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem for the Market Garden Commemorations and last Saturday saw the latest edition of our more or less annual antique (Military) bicycle ride...
Basically just a gathering of friends with vintage pre-1945 (Military) bicycles riding a tour on historical grounds and just catching up and having fun along the way.
We would have been 15, but predicted rain saw some people cancel their participation... and oddly the 8 that came didn't get wet all day...
This year we rode through the Battlefields of the Great War in Flanders, particularly where many of the battles between German and French and Belgian troops took place in 1914-1915...

Some photos from the Market Garden weekend and the bike ride

 

 

 

 

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Hey  !!

 

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Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent,  September 27  2022.

 

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