Operation Overlord

March 19, 2013 1:21 PM

PhotosNormandie is a collaborative collection of more than 3,000 royalty-free photos from World War II's Battle of Normandy and its aftermath. (Photos date from June 6 to late August 1944). The main link goes to the photostream. You can also peruse sets, which include 2700+ images from the US and Canadian National Archives.
posted by zarq (12 comments total)

Woah. I don't usually do the e-mail-loadsa-people thing, because it's obnoxious, but this seems like something the men in my family will love.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 1:23 PM on March 19

Wow, very cool. Thanks for this!

There is *so* much about this event in text, but pictures that are free to use are less easy to find. Not impossible, but just less thick on the ground.
posted by wenestvedt at 1:38 PM on March 19 [1 favorite]

Good resource, thanks for the post.
posted by dazed_one at 1:48 PM on March 19

Awesome!
posted by Mikon6 at 1:50 PM on March 19

Wow! So many I haven't seen before.

This is just the sort of thing that makes Metafilter such a great place to visit.
posted by tommasz at 2:52 PM on March 19 [2 favorites]

I laughed at the Canadian photostream shots with Wayne and Schuster.
posted by bonobothegreat at 2:54 PM on March 19 [2 favorites]

Wayne and Shuster. I never expected a single other human to ever have heard of them. "You mean martini? If I wanted only one, I'd have asked for it!"
posted by DU at 3:59 PM on March 19 [1 favorite]

Although a lot has been written about Normandy, I don't think it has really sunk in how much of a meat grinder the campaign was for both the Germans and the Allies. Casualty rates on both sides resembled or exceeded those of the Eastern Front (where the Russians were throwing away entire formations). And the Allied bombing campaign reduced some cities in Normandy to blackened husks. But I guess Paris was spared.
posted by KokuRyu at 4:31 PM on March 19

Wow, thanks zarq!!!
posted by AElfwine Evenstar at 5:57 PM on March 19

Wayne and Shuster. I never expected a single other human to ever have heard of them.

"I told him, Julie, don't go. It's the Ides of March, I said..."



That being said, I know it's problematic to fetishize images of warfare, but I just can't get over this picture of a U.S. paratrooper guarding German POWs and looking like the BIGGEST BADASS EVER.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:01 PM on March 19 [1 favorite]

This is great. Thanks, zarq.
posted by homunculus at 12:25 AM on March 20

You're very welcome! :)
posted by zarq at 7:58 AM on March 20