UKC

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/ng-interactive/2014/jun/01/d-day-la...

Some familiar place-names from Saving Private Ryan & Band of Brothers.

#dday70

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

I saw those earlier - really cool. Moreton-in-Marsh is not far from my house, which added a bit of interest. Have you seen these:

http://iliketowastemytime.com/2012/03/09/then-now-combining-war-photos-phot...

In reply to Submit to Gravity:

Had seen something similar but not all if them - thanks. Always find these sort of things fascinating.

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

And these:

http://englishrussia.com/2009/01/26/2235/

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

That's a simple but very effective and powerful concept. Brilliant stuff, thanks for sharing.

In reply to Douglas Griffin:
Interesting stuff.

WWII now ,obviously feels like it happened a lifetime ago ,but when I started school in 1980 it was still very much recent history.35 years since the end of the war.

It is now the same time ,almost ,since the Falklands conflict ( I was 7) and the veterans of that campaign I know are still active working men.

I will never tire of gleaning knowledge about the war.and seeing and touching history at first hand.
I have the door of a C47/ Dakota in my shed .amongst other things.

In one of the houses I occasionally work at ,there lives a fascinating old chap in his 90s who signed up for his local ak ak battery the day war was declared and served all over the empire, including under Gen Slim in Burma.

In reply to andymac:

I was born 20 years after the end of ww2 and, to the people then, it did seem very recent and raw. My adoptive father was in the paras and dropped over the Rhine on Op Varsity. It turns out my paternal grandfather flew bombers and towed gliders on the same Op. Weird but i guess it touch everyone.

Never forget however that something like 26 million Russians lost their lives.

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

This is quite upsetting for me.
My dad was adamant that he landed at a place called Port en Bessin, so we went to trace his footsteps and none of the locals acknowledged the existence of the place. Yet it's there on Google for all to see.
I feel a bit robbed. Maybe it was my accent.

In reply to Skyfall:
Had more success recently with Google following up things my dad said but never imagined those almost harmless sounding tidbits would lead to this.


27 June
At 7:00 a.m. a patrol from the 11th DLI and the Yeomanry tanks began to probe into Rauray, against the garrison of infantry from III Battalion of the 26th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment and flanking fire from tanks and 88mm guns, which knocked out several Yeomanry tanks and forced the rest to withdraw. A platoon of the DLI fought their way into the village centre but the rest of the battalion was bombarded by mortar fire, directed by an observer concealed up a tree. After an artillery bombardment, at 11:00 a.m. the DLI fixed bayonets and advanced in line abreast against machine-gun and sniper fire, which caused many casualties and led a truce being arranged at noon, for both sides to recover wounded. The attack resumed at 2:00 p.m. and by 4:00 p.m. the village had been captured; several German snipers were found to have been camouflaged and tied to trees.

In reply to Tom Valentine:

It certainly exists - we camped there in 1974, the locals were fine, and we had a great guided tour of the beaches.

In reply to cander:

My mistake. My wife has reminded me that it was a hamlet adjacent to Port en Bessin whose name was unknown to locals and which has presumably been swallowed up by redevelopment.

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

My father was in the RN during WWII and my mother was in the ATS manning AA guns. She was in europe six weeks after D day She saw more combat than many did. This included being strafed by German fighters. watched here boyfriend shot during another raid. Shooting down one german aircraft in France the german pilot asked if he could congratulate the crew on their good shooting. He refused to get out of the jeep though when he was driven up to the gun crew and he released they were women!! Hearing that her brother was fighting at the front not too far away she hitched a lift in a supply truck to the front line where she found her brother (and of course my uncle). His comment on seeing his younger sister? "Go back or I'll tell our mum". Later, like many allied troops mum was taken to Buchanwalde concentration camp and watched whilst the ex guards dug up the rotting corpses of their victims.

When I joined the RN in 1966 my 1st ship had three crew on board who took part in WWII. One had survived two sinkings by torpedoes, the second time, immediately after he'd been rescued from the first sinking!. Another had been a prisoner of the Japanese and our own Chief Radio Operator was on one of our battleships bombarding the invasion defences on D day.

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

Am I the only person that can't view the photo's?
All I get is an empty white space where I imagine they should be.
I'm using IE 11.

More here:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/then-and-now-in-pictures-70-years...