Our Battlefield Tour, Easter 2009

Discussion in 'World War 2' started by Buster, May 20, 2009.

  1. Buster

    Buster "Deep down 'ere in'nit Chief?!"

    I was not quite sure where to put this, so here it is, now I know a section of it covers WW1, for that i apologise and to Lee who has seen this before.... sorry mate - but tough!

    Well, here we are folks, a write up of the recently completed trip around some of the WW1 & WW2 battlefields of Europe, ie Belgium and France.

    This trip could never be described as Great fun, it was never intended to be, it can however, be described as very enjoyable, moving, somber and above all emotional.

    So, we began on Saturday morning, into the car down to Prestwick airport, dropped Anne and her clan off, they were off to sunny Espania - OLE!
    Back to mine and got changed then jumped astride the bike then off to Jeff's house.

    (The reason I mentioned the airport was because that was an unexpected 110 mile round trip before I even looked at the bike!)

    Huckled Jeff out of his wife's arms and the pair of us set of to Edinburgh, 85 miles later we were at Paul's house. Coerced some bacon and eggs out of Paul, then 20 mins later back on the road.. next stop Newcastle another 120 mile trip - God Bless Saddlemen and thier lovely after market seats!

    So at Newcastle jumped aboard the ferry for an all u can eat dinner and a few beers, next stop Ijmuiden (Amsterdam, Holland).


    Paul checking out the lifeboats ..... you never know....

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    Then about 30 miles out from Ijmuiden, a most amazing sight a seaborne windfarm, really don't know why people complain about these things, i think they are full of grace and beauty.


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    Next morning we docked in Ijmuiden then jumped back on the bikes for a 200 mile hop to Lille for the first night's stopover.

    Jeff's Tomtom got us to "somewhere near to the hotel" and then when we stopped to ask for directions Paul's Hayabusa started playing silly games and he couldn't disable the alarm or get it started... Bugger!

    We were stuck there for a couple of hours trying different things....

    Stranded...
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    We decided to leave the bike for an hour or so, to give the fob battery some rest (we couldn't get a new battery as it was Sunday and everywhere was shut and at this point we deduced it could only be the fob battery).

    So we went back to the bike and the restaurantuer asked us to move it as he was opening up. We did, and hey presto the bike started playing again and has done ever since, we think that perhaps it was subject to some form of radio interference.

    Happy days.

    Next morning we set off for the war grave in St Omer, (one of Jeff's relatives lies there), hmm, I said "the war grave" I meant "a war grave" as the entire contryside is peppered with gravesites - hundreds of thousands of poor souls..


    Anyway St Omer..

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    You may have noticed that the British military grave at St. Omer is joined on to the community graveyard, not that uncommon, apparently. It also contained a few souls from WW2...

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    Jeff's relative.

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  2. Buster

    Buster "Deep down 'ere in'nit Chief?!"

    Well after that somber moment, it was back onto the bikes and off to Caen in Normandy for the next leg of the trip, another 200 mile hop.

    Tuesday morning Jeff and I went to the first of our normandy beaches via the beatiful wee town of Bayeux - where we went to visit the tapestry.

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    and this is a replica of one of the boats William and his men used to cross the channel (to complete the one and only battle France has won against us! bastards!) Anyway they deserved to win if they were using boats like that, they even carried horses in them - mad b@stards!

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    Okay, allow me to show you some of the memorials and features at "OpenDNS" beach, most of the pictures are self explanatory, so I won't ramble on about them.

    The hall of honour, built within a captured German bunker, (this was closed off by a locked gate, probably to prevent vandalism from mindless English teenagers.)

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    The main Cenotaph (obelisk)

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  3. Buster

    Buster "Deep down 'ere in'nit Chief?!"

    The memorial dedicated to the men of the US Navy.

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    The long (thankfully) silent guns of the enemy...

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    and the memorial in the background....

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    .......Being reclaimed by the beach....

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  4. Buster

    Buster "Deep down 'ere in'nit Chief?!"

    once a scene of utter chaos catastrophe and murder.. now ..... just a beach.

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    Other relics, dotted about outside the visitor centre...

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  5. Buster

    Buster "Deep down 'ere in'nit Chief?!"

    After spending an hour or so wandering around Utah beach we moved on to OpenDNS, this is the beach that they represented in the opening scene of "Saving Private Ryan".

    It is quite difficult to imagine the wall of resistance that met the troops, but a lot of the coastline has been changed over the years, in fact some of the new roads are the ones laid by the engineers to further aid the subsequent landings of machinery and equipment.

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    The newer steel memorial, is meant to reprsent the ships that the (men of steel) liberators crossed in it also represents those ships and lives torn to pieces as part of the invasion.

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    This is how the sea front looks today....

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  6. Buster

    Buster "Deep down 'ere in'nit Chief?!"

    This wee gap between the hotel and the construction atop the hill was the scene of the worst of the casualties, it was literally a site of massacre.

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    An upward looking view of the memorial to the lives lost at this spot.

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  7. Buster

    Buster "Deep down 'ere in'nit Chief?!"

    Pointe du Hoc...

    Located 7 miles west of Vierville sur Mer, Pointe du Hoc is best known for the assault made on it by the US 2nd Ranger Battalion under the command of Col. James Earl Rudder. There it was feared the Germans had fortified six 155-mm artillery emplacements on the cliffs which overlooked the landing beaches. These guns would enable artillery fire to be directed over both Omaha and Utah approaches, undoubtedly causing massive casualties in the landing forces. Although there were several aerial bombardments intelligence reports assumed that the fortifications were too strong, and would also require attack by ground forces. The US 2nd Ranger Battalion was therefore given the task of destroying the strongpoint.

    The plan called for the three companies of Rangers to be landed by sea at the foot of the cliffs, scale them using ropes, ladders, and grapples under enemy fire, and engage the enemy at the top of the cliff. This was to be carried out before the main landings. The Rangers trained for the cliff assault on the Isle of Wight and Spean Bridge in Scotland, under the direction of British Commandos and used London Fire Brigade ladders and rocket propelled grappling hooks with rope ladders attached during the assault.

    Despite initial setbacks due to weather and navigational problems, resulting in a 40-minute delay and loss of surprise, the cliffs were scaled and the strongpoint was assaulted successfully, with relatively light casualties. Fire support was provided during the attack by several nearby Allied destroyers. However it was discovered that the main objective of the assault, the artillery battery, had been moved out of position, possibly as a result of air attacks during the buildup to the invasion. It is said that German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel himself gave the order to move the battery as he had recently been placed in charge of the coastal defenses of Normandy. Removal of the guns had actually been completed on June 4, 1944, and poor weather conditions prior to the invasion limited a final reconnaissance effort which would have revealed the guns removal. The Rangers regrouped at the top of the cliffs, and a few went off in search of the guns, tracking them down far inland and destroying them. This new battery location inland was sighted solely for Utah beach.

    The costliest part of the battle for the Rangers came after the cliff assault. Determined to hold the high ground, yet isolated from other assault forces, they fended off several German counterattacks over the next two days, until reinforced from Omaha Beach. The original plans called for an additional, larger Ranger force of eight companies to follow the first attack, if successful. Flares from the clifftops were to signal this second wave to join the attack, but because of the delayed landing, the signal came too late, and the other Rangers, mostly of the US 5th Ranger Battalion, landed on Omaha instead of Pointe du Hoc.

    At the end of the 3-day action, the landing force of 225+ was reduced to about 90 men who could still fight.

    Bomb craters, left as a reminder.

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    In the background, you can see the memorial unveiled and deicated by Pres. Reagan.

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  8. Buster

    Buster "Deep down 'ere in'nit Chief?!"

    The next day we set off to visit Sword, Gold and Juno beaches, however, we were a little pressed for time so this became a wee bit of a whistlestop tour.

    When we passed through the outskirts of Bayeux, we (literally) rode through this, the main road runs through it..

    Bayeux Commonwealth Cemetary.

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    A very touching addition....

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    another touching addition....

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  9. Buster

    Buster "Deep down 'ere in'nit Chief?!"

    The next stop was the gun battery at Longues sur Mer, which was captured by the Devonshire regiment. This battery was captured intact and contrary to orders, two of the captors decided to try and fire one of the guns. The result was catastrophic and as you can see one of the battery elements is totally destroyed.. sadly the two tommies were killed in the blast also.

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    Jeff and Paul..... posing

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  10. Buster

    Buster "Deep down 'ere in'nit Chief?!"

    Next stop was Arromanches, this is the Westernmost end of Gold beach, this is where the Mulberry harbours were erected to facilitate the landings/disembarkation of the remainder of the materiel support for the war effort. This simple concept (by Sir Winston Churchill himself), is reckoned to be the foundation for the subsequent successes after D-Day and possibly the cornerstone for the war.

    Not bad for a bunch of rafts eh?

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  11. Buster

    Buster "Deep down 'ere in'nit Chief?!"

  12. Buster

    Buster "Deep down 'ere in'nit Chief?!"

    Okay, after Arromanches we went down the coast to Juno beach, at this point time was running against us so it was literally just a whistle-stop visit as we still had 180 miles to cover on this day and it was already 3pm, anyway..... Juno.


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    The tank at Juno is a british built Churchill Mortar thrower, this landed at ther beach and began it's journey inland, 100 metres from the beach it ran into a bomb crater and became stranded. Six members of the crew were killed whilst trying to escape from the stricken vehicle. Subsequently a bridge was run over the top of the tank to give the following forces a reasonably firm route through the craterfield.

    The tank remained buried at that spot until the late 1970's when it was excavated and partial restoration put it into the condition you see today, where it remains as a memorial to those engineers who lost thier lives. Two of the original crew members were present at the dedication ceremony.


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  13. Golden Wattle

    Golden Wattle New Member

    Well done Buster.
    I just returned from a quick visit to both El Alamein & Gallipoli.
    The emotion one feels can be a bit overpowering, but it makes us remember, & that's what these sites are about..thanks for sharing your visit.
    Cheers
    GW.
     
  14. Colonel Klink

    Colonel Klink New Member

    Great pictures buster.:)
     
  15. liverpool annie

    liverpool annie New Member

    Absolutely wonderful Buster !! ...

    thank you so much for sharing your trip and photos ... it's wonderful for us transplanted British .... who never went to these places while we had the opportunity !

    ( I believe I've followed you before on a WW1 trip !! :) )

    Annie :)
     
  16. Kitty

    Kitty New Member

    Absolutely amazing explore Buster. And is it wrong that I now have a long list of items to nick and culverts to explore?
     
  17. Ferhilt

    Ferhilt New Member

    Thanks for sharing, I may never get a chance to visit the battlefields in Europe, so its a treat to get to see them.
     
  18. Antipodean Andy

    Antipodean Andy New Member

    Wonderful thread, Buster. One of the best we've had on here so thank you for taking the time to post and write. I haven't been to France yet but will get there one day. I am always in awe of people who do battlefield tours up there - there's just so much to see. I spent a day at Gallipoli in 2005 but that was nowhere near enough.

    Amazing to see so many relics still remaining. I knew the harbours etc were there but there seems to something around every corner. The scale is simply sobering and incomprehensible.
     

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