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1944
2004!
Colonel Oliver Warman, Ret.
Col. Warman majored in modern history and war studies at Oxford, lectured at the Royal Military Staff College, and served as military assistant to the British Prime Minister, in addition to serving tours of duty in three wars.
Colonel Warman explains German defensive positions to Lake
Lake standing on "shingle"
"Shingle close up
First British bullet marks at Gold Beach, Arromanches
Ominous meadow
Ominous bunkers
Gun barrel rifling
Gun mount from rear entrance
Ruins and newly planted flowers
The colonel shows lake the difference between bomb craters and naval shell craters
The wall where Germans shot and killed eighty Canadian prisoners of war. Canadians rarely took German prisoners of war after this incident.
Colonel shows site of where German machine gunner was buried by a local farmer
Colonel emerges from the first trail from the beach cleared by allied tanks
Machine gun nest!
Airborne tourist in Saint Mere Eglise
Tourist trapped
Lake finds bullet mark in church wall
Stained glass paratroopers in Saint Mere Eglise church
Pumper
Saint Mere Eglise diorama
Diorama detail
2004 tranquility
Chateau
Survivor
Lake explains his haircut to perplexed Colonel
Dunes on Utah Beach
"Rommels Asparagus" at Utah Beach
The Colonel chats with Utah Beach veteran
Sherman
Radio in Utah Beach Museum
Utah Beach Allies
"Over there..."
Mederet River meadow which was flooded by Rommel. Hundreds of American paratroopers drowned here
Mederet river bridge, site of a three day battle in which 82nd Airborne struggled to hold position against German counter attacks.
Bridge and causeway in 1944
Maison de laFriere where Colonel Roy Lindquist of the 508th established headquarters from disorganized scattered elements of several airborne regiments.
Bas relief memorial to fallen paratroopers shaped like a deflating parachute
Details etched in bronze
I was briefly a part of the 508th Airborne Regimental Combat Team when I went to "jump school" at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. I was totally unaware of its history.
Church at XXXXX, at other end of 300 yard causeway
from Mederet River bridge: 1944
Church today
Tank casualties on causeway 1944.
Although manned by Germans they were actually Renault tanks captured from the French during the German invasion in 1940.
The causeway from the same point of view today!
La Pont du Hoc
Site of Ranger attacks up these cliffs!
Low Tide
Mulberries off Arromanches
Mulberries were floating docks towed from Britain to use in offloading supplies until a true port could be captured.
American mulberries were destroyed in violent storm
only days after they were set up.
Tourists cavort
Twilight
German "88" near beach in Arromonches
A small British cemetery.
Small cemeteries like this were scattered throughout Normandy because the British buried their dead where they fell.
Huge American Cemetery overlooking Normandy Beach.
Then...
Now
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Colonel Warman explains "Enfilade" to Lake