MetaFilter posts tagged with normandy

Normandy: Then and Now

Ufez Jones — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:41:43 -0800

Normandy: Then and Now Photographs of Normandy in 1944 meticulously juxtaposed with how the area looks today by French historian Patrick Elie.

Sitation Normal: All Fucked Up

Skeptic — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 12:58:15 -0800

Back in July 1994, a patrol of French blue helmets discovered, to their utter bemusement, a derelict Douglas C-47 "Dakota" in the midst of MiG carcasses in the Rajlovac airfield in Bosnia. They were intrigued enough to write down its serial number: Serial Nr. 43/15073 turned out to be a veteran of Normandy, Provence, Market Garden, the Bulge, and the Rhine. Now SNAFU Special is back in Normandy, where it is being restored to become a centerpiece of the Merville Battery Museum. After the war, SNAFU Special had been successively owned by the Czechoslovak airline CSA, the French Air Force, and the Yugoslav Air Force. Damaged on the ground by Serbian forces during the Bosnian war, it became after its rediscovery a bar for the French helicopter detachment. In 2007, the Bosnian government handed it over as a gift to France. In a nice historical touch, German engineering troops from EUFOR assisted to its transport.

France Will Never Forget

hama7 — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 08:25:57 -0800

The French Will Never Forget .

D-Day +63

NotMyselfRightNow — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 09:28:53 -0800

“All patriots, men and women, young and old, have a part to play in the achievement of final victory.”

World War II Glider Pilots; none had ever been before and probably none will ever be again; a hybrid breed like jackasses with no need to reproduce themselves...

Mister_A — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 13:19:31 -0800

Gliders spearheaded many major invasions and other operations in the European theatre of World War II, including the invasion of Normandy. I had no idea, but it turns out the House of Representatives recently passed a resolution honoring the glider pilots, and there's a Silent Wings Museum in Lubbock, TX. The World War II Glider Pilots Association site gives more background on the men, the planes, and the missions, as well as the memorable title quote. There's even a movie. [More Inside]

Alas, a self-godwining thread

five fresh fish — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 00:57:44 -0800

H1t3r pwnd UK, USA! A gunnery has been discovered, buried beneath a metre of iron-rich Normandy soil. It was likely part of a ruse on the part of the Axis forces: a fake gunnery was also built, less conspicuously, and it took the abuse. It was forgotten -- or the memory at least buried by the locals and those who fought there -- until recently. Now it appears to explain some puzzles about Bloody Omaha [pic].

j'ai besoin d'une title amusant

jonson — Mon, 21 Jul 2003 21:56:00 -0800

Mont St. Michel on the Normandy coast of France is a 12th century gothic abbey purched at the top of a tiny fortified village built around a small mountain; what's most unique about the location is that due to the very gentle incline of the coast, the mountain is located on salt marsh flats at low tide, but becomes an isolated island in the sea at high tide, accessible only by a raised road (added in the 1950s). It's also one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. While there are no shortage of photos of it online, this gallery had some of the most beautiful ones I'd ever seen. For those who can't make it to France, here's a quick guide to recreating the experience in miniature. warning - last link is from geocities, good for first six visitors only

Ernie Pyle, the original embedded reporter

KirkJobSluder — Tue, 06 May 2003 17:39:05 -0800

I just read an article about a one-man off-Broadway play based on the war reporting of Ernie Pyle. Meanwhile, the IU School of Journalism is reprinting three dozen of his dispatches. It is interesting that Pyle, perhaps the original embedded reporter managed to report honestly about the horrors of war in spite of perhaps a more sweeping censorship department that read everything coming from the front. Pyle's description of Normandy (previously discussed) is a classic contrasting a beautiful day on the beach, the human and material wreckage, and even empathy for German prisoners of war. And then there was some black humor of surviving near misses that could have come out of Catch 22 or Slaugherhouse 5. His unfinished final dispatch reads like poetry:

"Dead men by mass production--in one country after another--month after month and year after year. Dead men in winter and dead men in summer.
"Dead men in such familiar promiscuity that they become monotonous.
"Dead men in such monstrous infinity that you come almost to hate them."

luser — Thu, 07 Jun 2001 12:21:57 -0800

D-Day was 57 years ago yesterday. It was 16 years before an article in the Atlantic finally provided Americans an unvarnished account of the carnage that was Omaha Beach that day. I'm in awe of what these 19-year-olds went through.

GaelFC — Wed, 06 Jun 2001 08:11:52 -0800

It's D-Day Someone at work shared this Ernie Pyle column published just 10 days after the 1944 invasion of Normandy. It put a lump in my throat. Maybe it'll do the same for you. Excerpt: "I took a walk along the historic coast of Normandy in the country of France. It was a lovely day for strolling along the seashore. Men were sleeping on the sand, some of them sleeping forever. Men were floating in the water, but they didn't know they were in the water, for they were dead."

Steven Den Beste — Thu, 19 Oct 2000 17:40:33 -0800

These guys need to go back and look at some movies of the Normandy invasion. [more inside]