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ABL…I visited Normandy this year,Pegasus bridge,beaches,cemeteries,museums oh and a few vineyards.Very humbling what these guys did should never be forgotten and schools should be taught this history and realise that we were great once.Visit when you can pal.
I would like to see Pegasus Bridge, definitely. Probably the first soldier to die on D Day died there, Lt Den Brotheridge. He was killed as he led his men from the Gliders, onto Pegasus Bridge. Hit in the throat, I think.
My problem with Normandy is that I would like to see ALL of it….and I believe it’s an area of around 50 miles. (think Wigan to Stoke)My big interest being the U.S. Airborne, I would start my tour on the Cotentin Peninsula, around St Mere Eglise, through St Marie Du Mont and St Come Du Mont, down to Carentan. I DEFINITELY want to see Brecourt Manor, where Easy Co, led by Lt Richard Winters, took out the battery of guns on D Day morning. (Parts of the guns are still at Brecourt Manor)
I would like to follow the route of Easy Co and visit the places above, then Son and Eindhoven in the Netherlands, Bastogne and Foy-Noville in Belgium, Haguenau in France, and on into Germany and Hitler’s Eagles Nest mountain top retreat in Bavaria, at Berchtesgaden. Then finish off in the very picturesque looking Zell Am See, in Austria. I’d find that very interesting….not sure the family would be as keen though! Lol.Would love to see the majority of the Normandy battlegrounds, definitely. I also fancy sampling the local food and drink too.[/quote]
As a 10yr old I went on a family holiday to Normandy. It wasn’t to see any of that stuff but my grandad (who had landed on the beaches on D-Day) came along & we went to some of these places such as the beach he landed on, the cemetaries, loads of other places whose names have all escaped me other than St Lo & St Marie Eglise – if I remember rightly St marie Eglise is the village where the American para’s dropped in on & one of them got his parachute caught on the church spire & spent God knows how long dangling up there whilst it was going off all around him. The church now has (or did have back in 1985) a model of him hanging off the church, the town’s crest has been changed to show parachute symbols & there’s a WWII museum there
I regret that he died before I got the chance to go back there (& Nijmegen/Arnhem where he was injured) with him when I would have really appreciated it rather than as a 10 yr old who just got a bit bored.Went to Auschwitz & Krakow a few years back – horrendous place but somewhere I think everyone should go to at least once
Anyway away from football I’m into my funk & my history
ABL…I visited Normandy this year,Pegasus bridge,beaches,cemeteries,museums oh and a few vineyards.Very humbling what these guys did should never be forgotten and schools should be taught this history and realise that we were great once.Visit when you can pal.
I would like to see Pegasus Bridge, definitely. Probably the first soldier to die on D Day died there, Lt Den Brotheridge. He was killed as he led his men from the Gliders, onto Pegasus Bridge. Hit in the throat, I think.
My problem with Normandy is that I would like to see ALL of it….and I believe it’s an area of around 50 miles. (think Wigan to Stoke)My big interest being the U.S. Airborne, I would start my tour on the Cotentin Peninsula, around St Mere Eglise, through St Marie Du Mont and St Come Du Mont, down to Carentan. I DEFINITELY want to see Brecourt Manor, where Easy Co, led by Lt Richard Winters, took out the battery of guns on D Day morning. (Parts of the guns are still at Brecourt Manor)
I would like to follow the route of Easy Co and visit the places above, then Son and Eindhoven in the Netherlands, Bastogne and Foy-Noville in Belgium, Haguenau in France, and on into Germany and Hitler’s Eagles Nest mountain top retreat in Bavaria, at Berchtesgaden. Then finish off in the very picturesque looking Zell Am See, in Austria. I’d find that very interesting….not sure the family would be as keen though! Lol.Would love to see the majority of the Normandy battlegrounds, definitely. I also fancy sampling the local food and drink too.[/quote]
I was working in Poznan in Poland throughout June this year and opposite my apartment was the war cemetery where the soldiers who were executed during the ‘Great Escape’ are buried. There are about 200 or so British and Commonwealth graves there with the rest being Russian, German and Polish.
Wouldn’t normally choose to walk around a cemetery in my spare time, but as it was better than being stuck in an apartment by myself, and it was a really interesting place with a Russian aircraft and tank museum in the middle of it.
Poznan’s worth a visit if you get the chance Dave.
ABL…I visited Normandy this year,Pegasus bridge,beaches,cemeteries,museums oh and a few vineyards.Very humbling what these guys did should never be forgotten and schools should be taught this history and realise that we were great once.Visit when you can pal.
I would like to see Pegasus Bridge, definitely. Probably the first soldier to die on D Day died there, Lt Den Brotheridge. He was killed as he led his men from the Gliders, onto Pegasus Bridge. Hit in the throat, I think.
My problem with Normandy is that I would like to see ALL of it….and I believe it’s an area of around 50 miles. (think Wigan to Stoke)My big interest being the U.S. Airborne, I would start my tour on the Cotentin Peninsula, around St Mere Eglise, through St Marie Du Mont and St Come Du Mont, down to Carentan. I DEFINITELY want to see Brecourt Manor, where Easy Co, led by Lt Richard Winters, took out the battery of guns on D Day morning. (Parts of the guns are still at Brecourt Manor)
I would like to follow the route of Easy Co and visit the places above, then Son and Eindhoven in the Netherlands, Bastogne and Foy-Noville in Belgium, Haguenau in France, and on into Germany and Hitler’s Eagles Nest mountain top retreat in Bavaria, at Berchtesgaden. Then finish off in the very picturesque looking Zell Am See, in Austria. I’d find that very interesting….not sure the family would be as keen though! Lol.Would love to see the majority of the Normandy battlegrounds, definitely. I also fancy sampling the local food and drink too.[/quote]
As a 10yr old I went on a family holiday to Normandy. It wasn’t to see any of that stuff but my grandad (who had landed on the beaches on D-Day) came along & we went to some of these places such as the beach he landed on, the cemetaries, loads of other places whose names have all escaped me other than St Lo & St Marie Eglise – if I remember rightly St marie Eglise is the village where the American para’s dropped in on & one of them got his parachute caught on the church spire & spent God knows how long dangling up there whilst it was going off all around him. The church now has (or did have back in 1985) a model of him hanging off the church, the town’s crest has been changed to show parachute symbols & there’s a WWII museum there
I regret that he died before I got the chance to go back there (& Nijmegen/Arnhem where he was injured) with him when I would have really appreciated it rather than as a 10 yr old who just got a bit bored.Went to Auschwitz & Krakow a few years back – horrendous place but somewhere I think everyone should go to at least once
Anyway away from football I’m into my funk & my history[/quote]
Pvt John Steele of the 505th PIR, 82nd Airborne it was who landed on the steeple…though I believe they have the dummy para on the WRONG steeple, as he was actually around the other side. (It looks better for tourism)
On the night of 5th June 1944, going into the first hours of 6th June, there was a big house fire brought on by stray incendaries. The villagers were actually out (allowed after curfew) and were in a chain, supplying buckets of water from the water pump (still there) in the square near the church. The 505th PIR actually landed smack bang in the middle of the chaos, and were being picked off as they came down by the Germans who were supervising the villagers. Lots of paras got snagged in trees in the square and were killed still in their harnesses. Steele was snagged up and he dropped his knife as he was trying to free himself. He was shot in his foot and played dead….and was deafened by a machine gun firing from in the church steeple. He was taken prisoner eventually, but was freed soon after when U.S. forces took the town.I’ve been to Arnhem, walked on ‘The Bridge Too Far’, and the village of Oosterbeek where the cemetery is and most of the fighting took place. It’s actually a very beautiful place today. I’ve been to Krakow 5 times….love the place, and done the Auschwitz-Birkenau thing 3 times. Very hard hitting…most evil place on this earth.
STANDISH, might have to have a look at Poznan when I go back to Poland.
Yep, very keen angler, breed budgies, walk the dog for a few miles every day bit of bird watching, long haul holidays, caravaner and real ale drinker.. I also spend a lot of time up rivii with Fred and run a kebab shop ok.
According to some big hitters who think ( ha ha) they know everything I am also everybody on here. Lol.Yep, very keen angler, breed budgies, walk the dog for a few miles every day bit of bird watching, long haul holidays, caravaner and real ale drinker.. I also spend a lot of time up rivii with Fred and run a kebab shop ok.
According to some big hitters who think ( ha ha) they know everything I am also everybody on here. Lol.Arky, you forgot Coachline operator.
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