This is a follow up post to my previous thread about the trip my wife surprised me with. The cruise took us to several locations in England, Scotland, Ireland and Guernsey. But to me the clincher was to be in Normandy on June 5th. Here are just a few pictures of Guernsey and the German tunnels there and our brief tour of the Normandy invasion area. The place was a mad house with tons of tourists and traffic jams galore but well worth the visit.
The La Valette Underground Museum in Guernsey is a must place to visit. The Germans occupied this channel island along with Jersey Island and had these tunnels dug up. They are filled with thousands of personal items, uniforms, weapons, medals etc from both the German and British sides.
Yours truly at the entrance.
there are hundreds of display cases like these holding a magnificent militaria collection.
This is the first time I have seen an actual Kriegsmarine uniform
Lots of re enactors all over in Normandy
Lots of American armor and Jeeps!
check out the tag on this Sherman
Pointe du hoc was scaled by the Rangers the following day on the 6th. Unfortunately we could not stay for this historic re enactment.
The German observation bunker at Le Pointe du hoc
The Ranger memorial in the shape of the fighting dagger
The plaques inside the bunker listing the names of the youg men from the 2nd Ranger Batallion that died taking this position on June 6, 1944.
Look at the size of these craters, probably 500 lb bombs dropped by the Air Force.
And the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach
I zoomed in on a couple of markers and just hapenned to capture the grave of the highest US ranking serviceman buried there. I had no clue till I got home and reviewed the pictures.
This was an amazing trip thru history, starting with castles dating back to the 1100's in Scotland up to WWII and the Normandy landings. I took over 1300 pictures so I just barely listed all that we saw. Hope you enjoy the photography courtesy of my I Phone!