Norman D. Landing

[manayunkman]

This is what I find.

[mikie]

On 2/6/2025 at 1:55 PM, General Apathy said:

.

Predictive text issues . . . . . . . .

 

I dropped a friend off this morning at 07h30 this morning at a hospital in Caen for a replacement knee operation, he had the knee operation around 10h30 and he phoned me around 17h00 to return and pick him up. 

 

So I drove him home and his wife prepared us a meal and a decent bottle of Saint Emillion red.  On the way home I text'd the days events to another friend in the UK and he replied that he liked my house and wouldn't have described it as a ghetto. !!!!!! strange comment 

 

Apparently my text said I am about to get home,  and it replaced get with ghetto.  !!!! . . . . . . . . . . .  

 

wow how careful we need to be especially if filling in legal, official or governmental forms . . . . . . . . . . . . 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, February 06 2055.

...

Speak of the devil! I texted  my cousin yesterday about the photos of our long gone family I carried in my jacket. You may notice that the spellchecker changed the word “photographs” to “ horoscopes”. It did not inform me that it changed the word. Just did it. Thanks AI! 
If nobody has done so already, maybe we should start a Spellchecker Bloopers Forum. 
mikie

[mikie]

I pulled over for a random estate sale this morning and found this old wrench. I wouldn’t have paid it any mind except I saw the Ford marking so picked it up for $2 US. Now I wonder where I picked that habit up from? 
😁

 

Mikie

[mikie]

Hey, I may have found a Jeep I can almost afford!

Something just doesn’t look period correct about it though. What do you experts think of it? 
mikie

[earlymb]

7 hours ago, mikie said:

I pulled over for a random estate sale this morning and found this old wrench. I wouldn’t have paid it any mind except I saw the Ford marking so picked it up for $2 US. Now I wonder where I picked that habit up from? 
😁

 

Mikie

 

Now go get the rest of that A-Ford! 🤭

 

 

2 hours ago, mikie said:

Hey, I may have found a Jeep I can almost afford!

Something just doesn’t look period correct about it though. What do you experts think of it? 
mikie

 

Well, you could use it to walk the doggies... don't forget your Shriner's hat 😇

[General Apathy]

9 hours ago, mikie said:

Speak of the devil! I texted  my cousin yesterday about the photos of our long gone family I carried in my jacket. You may notice that the spellchecker changed the word “photographs” to “ horoscopes”. It did not inform me that it changed the word. Just did it. Thanks AI! 
If nobody has done so already, maybe we should start a Spellchecker Bloopers Forum. 
mikie

.

just sending message to my son-in-law ROBERT and it changed it to Tobert, who or what the hell is called a TOBERT !!!!!!

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent,  February 09 2025.

….

[General Apathy]

4 hours ago, mikie said:

Hey, I may have found a Jeep I can almost afford!

Something just doesn’t look period correct about it though. What do you experts think of it? 
mikie

.

hi mikie,

 

very nice Squire !!!!  suits you Sir,  you would be able to use it in the grounds of your country estate. 
 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent,  February 09 2025.

….

[General Apathy]

.

hi Earlymb,

 

when a UK Jeeping friend restored his Willys Slat-grille he made a rotisserie for twisting the body into any suitable position he needed to work on the body. Sadly I know you are working in restricted space. 

 

( I am experiencing problems with my laptop so this was a test email from my cell phone) 
 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, February 09 2025.

….

 

 

[General Apathy]

. 
Assembling crated GMC’s Normandy 1944.

 

a long time UK Jeeping friend in the UK who reads this forum but doesn’t make posts sent me these wartime images of a Normandy production line assembling the later style open cab GMC trucks. The open cab style were ideal for shipping in crated versions, than the earlier bulkier closed cab models 

 

 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent.  February 10 2025.

….

[General Apathy]

.

so the war ended and lots of the surplus US trucks were supplied to the French, Belgian and Dutch armies to rebuild their armies. 

Move on to the 1980’s and the wartime trucks are now disposed of into civilian hands.  These are photos of the fields of trucks in Holland that were for sale or broken for spares, again supplied by my UK Jeeping friend, Sadly I never made any photos at the time that we used to visit these fields of trucks. There were similar yards / fields of trucks in Belgium and France. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, February 10 2025.

….

[General Apathy]

. 
photos from the 1980’s when we made trips over to places like Arnhem, Oosterbeek and other famous wartime places and to the fields of trucks. 
 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, February 10 2025.

…

[General Apathy]

.

1979 movie Hanover Street 

 

My UK Jeeping friend also supplied these couple of photos when he worked with the vehicles on the Hanover Street movie.

 

 

 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, February 10 2025.

[Johan Willaert]

29 minutes ago, General Apathy said:

. 
Assembling crated GMC’s Normandy 1944.

 

a long time UK Jeeping friend in the UK who reads this forum but doesn’t make posts sent me these wartime images of a Normandy production line assembling the later style open cab GMC trucks. The open cab style were ideal for shipping in crated versions, than the earlier bulkier closed cab models 

 

 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent.  February 10 2025.

….

 

 

Don't remember if this had been shared before, but here's some footage and testimony from one of the GIs that assembled them....
 

 

[General Apathy]

. 
hi Graham ( MCDUFF ) 

 

something Marine Corp for you which hopefully I haven’t posted before. 
Marine’s preparing fuel supplies for airdrop to Marines fighting on Guadalcanal.  The cans are the earliest US cans copying the German style Jerrycans, the US had manufacturing facilities in India and Palestine in WWII,  before manufacturing the US designed cans began manufacturing in the US and also a facility they later set up in the UK. 
these early style US copies of the German style are quite difficult to find as so few were made in comparison to the regular style US cans. 

 

 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, February 10 2025 .….

[Scarecrow]

On 2/9/2025 at 2:53 AM, mikie said:

Hey, I may have found a Jeep I can almost afford!

Something just doesn’t look period correct about it though. What do you experts think of it? 
mikie

Mikie buy it!

[Scarecrow]

7 hours ago, General Apathy said:

.

so the war ended and lots of the surplus US trucks were supplied to the French, Belgian and Dutch armies to rebuild their armies. 

Move on to the 1980’s and the wartime trucks are now disposed of into civilian hands.  These are photos of the fields of trucks in Holland that were for sale or broken for spares, again supplied by my UK Jeeping friend, Sadly I never made any photos at the time that we used to visit these fields of trucks. There were similar yards / fields of trucks in Belgium and France. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, February 10 2025.

….

Talk about "A Field Of Dreams" Wow!

[General Apathy]

46 minutes ago, Scarecrow said:

Talk about "A Field Of Dreams" Wow!

.

hi scarecrow,

 

there were more surplus vehicles in the post war period and the 1980’s than people who wanted them. 
Every time I drive up up to Cherbourg now I look at a compound just before Valogne that was rammed full of great condition GMC’s for sale in the late 70’s.  Then just after Valogne there was a compound full of Jeeps all long gone now but the memories still lingers.   Somewhere around that area was a hugh surplus store hidden in the wilds of the countryside but the location of that has long since been forgotten. 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, February 10 2025 

… 

[Johan Willaert]

3 hours ago, General Apathy said:

. 
hi Graham ( MCDUFF ) 

 

something Marine Corp for you which hopefully I haven’t posted before. 
Marine’s preparing fuel supplies for airdrop to Marines fighting on Guadalcanal.  The cans are the earliest US cans copying the German style Jerrycans, the US had manufacturing facilities in India and Palestine in WWII,  before manufacturing the US designed cans began manufacturing in the US and also a facility they later set up in the UK. 
these early style US copies of the German style are quite difficult to find as so few were made in comparison to the regular style US cans. 

 

 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, February 10 2025 .….

 

Here's one I occasionally carry on the back of the Jeep...

 

[cutiger83]

16 hours ago, General Apathy said:

.

1979 movie Hanover Street 

 

My UK Jeeping friend also supplied these couple of photos when he worked with the vehicles on the Hanover Street movie.

 

 

 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, February 10 2025.

B-25!! One of my favorite planes! 

 

...Kat

[MCDUFF]

13 hours ago, General Apathy said:

. 
hi Graham ( MCDUFF ) 

 

something Marine Corp for you which hopefully I haven’t posted before. 
Marine’s preparing fuel supplies for airdrop to Marines fighting on Guadalcanal.  The cans are the earliest US cans copying the German style Jerrycans, the US had manufacturing facilities in India and Palestine in WWII,  before manufacturing the US designed cans began manufacturing in the US and also a facility they later set up in the UK. 
these early style US copies of the German style are quite difficult to find as so few were made in comparison to the regular style US cans. 

 

 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, February 10 2025 .….

Hi Ken, thank you for the fascinating photo! To think of parachuting jerrycans without further protection is amazing! I don't think I have seen an early can like this first hand? I will certainly look out now!

The white triangle is interesting to me. That is a marking for the 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division. I enclose some other examples I have randomly seen.

Many thanks for sharing! Cheers Graham

[earlymb]

I knew about the early US cans but I've never seen one (or maybe dismissed it as a German can?), does it have any stamped markings?

[earlymb]

23 hours ago, General Apathy said:

.

so the war ended and lots of the surplus US trucks were supplied to the French, Belgian and Dutch armies to rebuild their armies. 

Move on to the 1980’s and the wartime trucks are now disposed of into civilian hands.  These are photos of the fields of trucks in Holland that were for sale or broken for spares, again supplied by my UK Jeeping friend, Sadly I never made any photos at the time that we used to visit these fields of trucks. There were similar yards / fields of trucks in Belgium and France. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, February 10 2025.

….

 

The smaller headlight rings and brackets on the fenders with reflector and light are typical Dutch modifications. These trucks came directly from storage.

[General Apathy]

6 hours ago, MCDUFF said:

Hi Ken, thank you for the fascinating photo! To think of parachuting jerrycans without further protection is amazing! I don't think I have seen an early can like this first hand? I will certainly look out now!

The white triangle is interesting to me. That is a marking for the 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division. I enclose some other examples I have randomly seen.

Many thanks for sharing! Cheers Graham

 

.

hi Graham & Earlymb

 

I only have TWO of the early US made jerrycan copies, and both of these cans have a small circular hole in the centre of the flange for lifting the cap.  ( Perhaps Johan can confirm if his is the same in the centre of the flange ) 

Both the German and the British copies have the small hole off-set from the centre. 
the US copies are generally devoid of any markings or dates and there are several other details that differ, the handles being spot-welded and not welded.  I did once see a US copy with some coded lettering on one side towards the top, but with regret I failed to buy it. 
Jerrycan collecting has become as detail intensive with various manufacturing details as collecting US M1 helmets. 
 

 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, February 10 2025 

…

[General Apathy]

10 hours ago, cutiger83 said:

B-25!! One of my favorite planes! 

 

...Kat

.

hi Kat,

 

if I recall there were five B-25’s flown over from the States to the UK for filming. There used to be a very interesting documentary on YouTube about purchasing and flying to the UK,  the man who did this was a  ‘ loveable ‘ rogue type character and makes an interesting Wikipedia read. 
this is my original Hanover Street clapper-board back in the day and pre-digital modern ones. 

 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondents, February 10  2025 

…

 

 

 

[General Apathy]

. 
US Marines collecting war trophy’s.

 

Hey Graham, when the Marines think about collecting war trophies they think BIG !!!!

 

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, February 11 2025 

…