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Norman D. Landing


bilko1
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General Apathy

Hi Erwin, thanks for joining in on the posts, I have been out today and shot maybe twelve or so locations for 'then and now' posts, hopefully the first of which I plan to post sometime Sunday evening.

 

Cheers

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, March 21 2009.

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General Apathy

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Hi Forum Readers, we are back into St Mere Eglise with this post and over the next few evenings several more.

 

In post # 514 I showed photographs of the church and the suspended paratrooper John Steele, I gave directions to turn your back onto the church and proceed across the square to the green metal fence with evidence of bullet marks. The third building to the right of this fence is possibly one of the largest residences in the square, in 1944 it was owned by Dr. Monnier a veterinarian.

 

The following text is a short appraisal of the events at this house during the evening of 5 - 6th June, it is reported that Dr. Monniers daughter was told that evening by by her college professor that it was to be the night of the invasion. Billeted within their house was a German officer named Werner upon hearing low flying aircraft overhead he went out into the rear garden to investigate, shortly a U.S. paratrooper descended into the garden and was captured by Werner.

 

The story goes that this paratrooper told Werner and Monnier that the village was to be captured by following elements of his unit, upon hearing a growing amount of aircraft and seeing the amount of descending paratroopers Werner surrendered to the paratrooper.

 

Today the house is owned by an Englishman who runs a D-Day paratrooper themed cafe in a building to the right of the main house called the C-47 cafe.

 

Cheers

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, March 22 2009.

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General Apathy

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Hi Forum Readers, continuing on the theme of the main square at St Mere Eglise, in the previous post I explained about the house belonging to Dr. Monnier and the events there. Two buildings to the right of Dr. Monnier's house is the corner of the main square and you can either turn left for N-13 to Bayeux or right leaving the square for the N-13 and Cherbourg.

 

Just on the left at this junction is the setting for this posts photograph, in the 1944 photograph showing troops and a Jeep proceeding along the street note the curved archway gate at the rear of the troops in the middle of the photograph, the same curved gateway appears in the second photograph I took two days ago.

 

That's all for this evening, goodnight readers

 

 

Cheers

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, March 22 2009.

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Lewis,

 

Here are some "then and now" photos of General Omar Bradley in Normandy. The first photo was taken on June 7, 1944; the "now" photos were taken during the 25th anniversary of D-Day. I hope you find them interesting and that they fit the current theme of your post. Wouldn't we like to know what was going through his mind when he was walking the beach in 1969!

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All I can continue to say is "WOW" Better tha history books at school when I went to school. Of course then it was recent History Now its old History :rolleyes:

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General Apathy
Lewis,

 

Here are some "then and now" photos of General Omar Bradley in Normandy. The first photo was taken on June 7, 1944; the "now" photos were taken during the 25th anniversary of D-Day. I hope you find them interesting and that they fit the current theme of your post. Wouldn't we like to know what was going through his mind when he was walking the beach in 1969!

 

Hi Gunbarrel, thanks for adding the shots of Bradley, I wish they had been standing in front of a more identifyable building I may have been able to find it sometime.

 

p.s. loved the shot of your two dogs that you added to Abby K-9's post the other day.

 

Cheers

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, March 22 2009

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General Apathy
All I can continue to say is "WOW" Better tha history books at school when I went to school. Of course then it was recent History Now its old History :rolleyes:

 

Hi Robert, pleased to hear that you enjoy the ' lessons' hopefully there should be some other good shots later this week. thumbsup.gif

 

Nice garrison belt your son found this week. ;)

 

Cheers

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, March 22 2009

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p.s. loved the shot of your two dogs that you added to Abby K-9's post the other day.

 

Thank you! As you can see, my wife and I are "dog people," too. :)

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Johan Willaert

Just for your interest, the 1944 picture of Bradley is reversed (Note the closure on the British Made ETO jacket of the AAF General in the middle (name escapes me..). Also read the name on Bradley's Map Case!

Also the Major or LtCol on the left (which would be on the right in the original picture) has a rectangular patch which could be 4ID, 82AB (tab??) or 90ID.

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General Apathy
Just for your interest, the 1944 picture of Bradley is reversed (Note the closure on the British Made ETO jacket of the AAF General in the middle (name escapes me..). Also read the name on Bradley's Map Case!

Also the Major or LtCol on the left (which would be on the right in the original picture) has a rectangular patch which could be 4ID, 82AB (tab??) or 90ID.

 

Hi Johan, thanks for pointing that out ;) (no pun intended on the guy pointing ).

 

Now for the really important question raised by the reversing of the photo, does that make the cart in the background a right or left hand drive. ???? :blink:think.gif:lol:

 

A whole bunch of those photographs off the LIFE website are reversed images.

 

Cheers

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, March 23 2009

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Johan Willaert
Now for the really important question raised by the reversing of the photo, does that make the cart in the background a right or left hand drive. ???? :blink:think.gif:lol:

 

Since in France they drive on the right which is the right side, while in England they drive on the left which is the wrong side, I assume this cart is Left Hand Drive. ;)

 

It's a sentence which never stops confusing my English students......

 

BTW what would the tarpaulin in the background belong to?

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Since in France they drive on the right which is the right side, while in England they drive on the left which is the wrong side, I assume this cart is Left Hand Drive. ;)

 

It's a sentence which never stops confusing my English students......

 

BTW what would the tarpaulin in the background belong to?

Since the front cart looks like a Farm work cart I will guess the tarp is for their Sunday go to Church Cart. Robert

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General Apathy
Since in France they drive on the right which is the right side, while in England they drive on the left which is the wrong side, I assume this cart is Left Hand Drive. ;)

 

It's a sentence which never stops confusing my English students......

 

BTW what would the tarpaulin in the background belong to?

 

Hi Johan, I would guesstimate that the little canopy in the background would be their Sunday cart for going to church in thereby protecting their best Sunday clothing, the closer one being their working cart. I think the smaller ones with the canopy in England might be referred to as a 'gig' or a 'trap' used for socialising.

 

By the way I don't know if you have ever heard the reason why the English drive on the left, It relates back to the day's of yore when knights were bold. Most people and knights included were right handed so if you want to fight an adversary approaching from the front direction of you, you want him to be on the right hand side of you. When you then draw your sword you have the most clear field of action and you are not trying to fight right handed across the horse to your opponent on your left which would leave you Caggy or Caggie handed an olde English term. thumbsup.gifSo I am pleased to say that's why driving on the right is WRONG. thumbdown.gif

 

This is also the reason why turret stairs in castles should always spire upwards to the left, this means that the attackers entering the stairs and fighting upwards cannot slash easily with their swords as the defender can use the central column to partially hide behind. However the left spiral allows the defenders being right handed to have the greater room and power to sweep across the front of his body towards the attacker. ;)

 

Cheers

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, March 23 2009

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Just for your interest, the 1944 picture of Bradley is reversed (Note the closure on the British Made ETO jacket of the AAF General in the middle (name escapes me..). Also read the name on Bradley's Map Case!

Also the Major or LtCol on the left (which would be on the right in the original picture) has a rectangular patch which could be 4ID, 82AB (tab??) or 90ID.

 

Caption reads:

 

Normandy Invasion

 

On the second day of the Normandy invasion during WWII, Gen. Omar Bradley, Maj. Gen. Ralph Royce of the 9th Air Corps and Bradley aide, major Hansen, looking at map in envelope packet labeled "Bradley"; they are standing courtyard.

 

Location: Ste Mere-Eglise, Normandy, France

Date taken: June 07, 1944

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Johan Willaert

Thanks for the history lesson, Ken. I had read the story about the Knights riding on the left of their opponent, but I hadn't noticed the stairs thing....

 

So, if the Major is Gen Bradley's aide, he would be wearing a 1st Army patch...

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Corpl. Cleaver
So, if the Major is Gen Bradley's aide, he would be wearing a 1st Army patch...

 

I agree, it is 1st Army, if you look closely you can see a light edge(the green background) and a little bit of the black A around the top and side.

 

Tyler

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As for the cart ....... check the gearbox and you'll know what side it is ...... B)

 

Very interesting history lesson but I was aware of the knights/swords thing.

So if the French rode backwards on their horses ..... they would have concquered all of England?

 

Erwin

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General Apathy

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Hi Forum Readers, Thanks Johan, Robert, Gunbarrel, Tyler and Erwin for adding into and answering some questions.

 

As it's getting late here I shall only have time for one photo this evening, it's the same corner of the square in St Mere Eglise as last nights photo just yards from Dr Monniers house, post # 527. Last night we looked left at the junction and saw the troops and Jeep passing in front of the arched gateway, post #528.

 

Well stood in the same spot as last night but now looking right is the subject of tonight's photo, in the 1944 shot there is an arched window in the building on the left, sadly I just missed that on my comparison shot and my shot starts with the next building after the arched window in the 1944 shot. If you look at the upstairs windows above the ground floor the roof line and the roof windows then there is very little change from 1944 to 2009, on the ground floor the shop windows have changed dramatically. The best part of the two photographs to compare are the house's to the left of the soldier on the white horse, especially the taller house with the higher roof line.

 

When I have finished with my series of 'then & now' shots of St Mere Eglise it will be good I think to show a map of the town and indicate the spots of the photos on the map, it may be easier to understand how small the town is and how many shots were taken within the town covering so many angles.

 

It's also funny the difference in the camera shots from 1944 and today, in tonight's photo look at the distance in both photographs to the white walled house at the end of the row of house on the left, in mine the distance looks greater, but then I am not a trained photographer.

 

Another interesting little story relating to tonight's photo, in my comparison photo there is a partial building on the right side of the photo. This is a lady's dress store, owned by a French lady, when she was young in June 1944 she met one of the American soldiers in St Mere Eglise, he moved on with his unit when they left St Mere Eglise, and eventually at wars end returned to the states and married. Eventually his wife passed away and he made a visit to St Mere Eglise where upon he re-met the woman he had met in 1944 and her husband had also passed away, so he

moved to France and St Mere Eglise and they eventually got married.

 

Cheers and goodnight from Normandy

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, March 23 2009.

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General Apathy

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Hi Forum Readers, shown here today is a small ceramic sink that I grabbed at the village tip a few months back, my intention was to use it in the garden as either a pot for some small flowers or a bird water trough.

 

Anyway about three days after finding it at the tip I visited a large German bunker at Ouistreham near Caen, it covers the port estuary area and is advertised as the ' Grand Bunker' well worth a visit if in the area. It is not just an empty concrete shell like so many others it has been filled with rooms of artifacts. ;)

 

Just as you enter the bunker on the ground floor around on the left wall is an identical sink to the one I feature here, so I came back home and had a real good look at the sink, on the rear it is dated 44. Not certain if this is a German produced sink or ones that they acquired from French manufacturers during occupation. Pity that there's no German eagle embossed in the underneath with the date, could have sold it as German airborne then w00t.gifthumbsup.gif .

 

Nice free find though and the birds enjoy bathing in it. :lol:

 

Cheers

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, March 26 2009.

 

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Hi Ken.

 

Seeing as they must know you collect WW II related artifacts, I'm curious, do the locals bring you much war related stuff? What's the neatest item you have seen in your area that a local has unearthed?

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General Apathy

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Hi Ken.

 

Seeing as they must know you collect WW II related artifacts, I'm curious, do the locals bring you much war related stuff? What's the neatest item you have seen in your area that a local has unearthed?

 

Hi Dave, well you might laugh I'm the new kid on the block :unsure: . Last Saturday I was talking out the front of my house to my neighbour from the left who has lived here for around six years, when the neighbour on the right who's family have lived there for generations approaches and hands the two panels of parachute to my neighbour from the left.

 

Apparently his grand-father acquired it during the war, and he had just found out that the neighbour from the left collected war stuff so gave it to him. It's the lower section of panel 8 and panel 9, they appear to have been un-stitched neatly at the first diagonal join in the material. So I would assume as it had been done so neatly that the top parts had been tailored into something else by someone handy with a sewing machine, perhaps silky panties underwear ;) which appears to have been fairly common in Normandy when chute ( white or camo ) was available to them.

 

Hey ho perhaps my day will come when I have been here six years crying.gif

 

Cheers

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, March 27 2009.

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Ken,Do you think you have scratched the surface where you are?.And do you think you will head "south"?..

 

can't believe how time has flown since you signed my/your book...Your doing sterling work as normandy "warco" thumbsup.gif ..

 

Regards,

 

Dave..

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