Hi

Went down to France again the other day in the 180 and the weather was great.

Thought some may be interested in the first photos on this thread as they show Utah and Omaha, the cliffs the Rangers scaled and the huge war cemetery.

Click on...

http://forums.flyer.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=38741

There is no controlled airspace in the area so 500' provides a good view.

Find it difficult to express what I think of the courage of the GIs that stormed ashore that day after seeing it from the ground also.

Thanks for sharing those pictures. I am reminded of an old friend recently lost. A Marine.

We have a fellow who lives here in the summertime who was there when the bullets were flying. Those few remaining old gents are to be treasured, as will all of our vets.

Although I loath airline travel, that is a place I plan to see one day.

Thanks again.

gb

gbflyer,

Do it before you can't. My wife is in the Army and we were stationed in Germany a few years ago and me being a military buff, one of the first things we did was to drive up to Normandy and see the beaches where the D-Day landings were. Quite a sombering experience. A lot to see and several museums to visit made for a great visit. You can even see a replica paratrooper hanging from the original church steeple at Sainte Mere Eglise (sp).

My wifes grandfather was buried alive during WWI at the Argonne Forrest and we also visited there.

There is lots of things to see all within a few hours drive while in that part of the world. If you interested at all its a must see in my opinion.

Keith

wish I could see them but my Puter says I'm banned from seeing them! Sup with that or is it me.. Tried to register but it won't let me do that either. I wore my deodorant today so that can't be the reason.....

Keith,

I was able to get over to Luxembourg with my Grandfather to see his old battle sites with the 3rd Cav and visit the AMC there where a lot of his guys are buried. It's a beautiful place and probably the only time I've ever seen him cry. Now I want to see the AMC at Omaha. (Grandpa came ashore at Utah D+62 and was part of the Cobra breakout, dash across France with Patton, the Saar Triangle and down into Austria. Battlefield Commission from Platoon Sgt. to 2nd then 1st Lt.)

Brad

Brad, if your grandpa is still around, please thank him for me. Mine passed on a couple of years ago. He would never say much about what he did in France and Germany, only a story here and there about liberating the camps and such. I wish I would have pressed him, but never did.

gb

hey Kiwi, how about posting those pix here on the BCP site. I tried everything to access them. All I get is I'm banned from the site. Never have been to the site before, so I don't know what that means nor can I contact anyone to find out. Very frustrating.

For Iceman, who appears to have been blacklisted by a british ISP...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Flyer.co.uk:

Last week we were going to head down to the French Alps but the snows had started and covered the altislopes already so it was back to plan B...which was initially the first part of Plan A.

Having spotted a private airfield for sale in the Loire we had made arrangements to stay there on the way to Megeve but as the pressure was off we waited for a good day and headed off to Caen for customs and fuel.

Years back I had worked with many Kiwis who had flown 'rhubarb' missions over France and their most vivid impressions even years later were the 'forts' along the coast and the beautiful chateaux inland that they flew around at window level hoping to permanently disturb some German officers' lunch...

This was the best day that we had experienced along the coast so took the opportunity to have a look at...

Fort de Tahiton...

<img src="http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g100/chinapilot/P1010896.jpg" border="0">

...and very close to it Fort de la Hougue

<img src="http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g100/chinapilot/P1010899.jpg" border="0">

As you know coastal France has many forts like this mostly designed by Vauban in the late 1600s. My interest was triggered by a recent article in Volez!

Of course the obligatory photos of Utah Beach...

<img src="http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g100/chinapilot/P1010905.jpg" border="0">

and the memorial there...

<img src="http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g100/chinapilot/P1010911.jpg" border="0">

... the awesome cliffs at Pointe du Hoc were so many 'Rangers' were killed on D-Day,

<img src="http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g100/chinapilot/P1010923.jpg" border="0">

...many of them buried here...

<img src="http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g100/chinapilot/P1010935.jpg" border="0">

After landing at Caen for customs [no sign of them as usual] where the usual friendly pompiers did the refuelling and the equally pleasant ladies in the office took the fuel payment and the meagre landing fee we headed off to Vicq which is just to the NW of Chateauroux.

A beautiful afternoon and the only problem was trying to tell the various people we were talking to where our destination was as it had no four letter code.

Passed many towns like this with the autumn colours highlighting the fantastic architecture......

<img src="http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g100/chinapilot/P1010953.jpg" border="0">


A very friendly guy at Tours ATC, after giving us some radar vectors around an inbound to Tours gave us a heading to Vicq which indicated he must be into GA...we had it on the trusty GPS anyway and it soon come into view...left base for 18

<img src="http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g100/chinapilot/P1010958.jpg" border="0">

...where we we met by the vendor and great host Helmut...

<img src="http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g100/chinapilot/P1020032.jpg" border="0">

The strip has an aero club, hangar, gite and B&amp;B accommodation...and is for sale!

<a href="http://www.echalier.org" target="_blank">http://www.echalier.org</a>

For various reasons we aren't going any further with it but it might be the ideal opportunity for someone...You can even be the President of the Club!

After a few beers out came the photo albums as Helmut spent 25 years in the Congo running his own charter business. Mrs GOP and Yen cooked up some real Thai food and so ended a perfect day.

Anyway, this ended our first day with four more to go just bumming around France...

The photos aren't as sharp as normal and as Mrs GOP was the photographer this resulted in some fairly animated discussion when I downloaded them...however it was my fault as I hadn't set it on auto...it seems...

Thanks GB, I'll be sure to do that. Grandpa Larson is still going strong. I surprised him at Thanksgiving this year and made him sit down and do a Ken Burns sort of interview for the family. Only a couple of us know about what he went through. I've almost finished the DVD and just need to add some pictures for context and I'll give them out at Christmas. Three of my uncle and aunts who were there sat in on the interview having never heard any of it.

I wish you could have heard more from your Grandpa, these guys are a true treasure and its hard to let them go.

This is a link to the Concentration Camp he helped liberate in Austria once they got down there to stop any German National Redoubt or Tito from coming up (Ebensee - http://www.jewishgen.org/ForgottenCamps ... eeEng.html )
He sent his Sgt. up the road to find out where all the SS heading away from town had come from. Sgt. McManus reported back about the camp so they sent a couple tanks up there to break down the gate. Bob Persinger, the lead tank commander told us a few years ago when I met him that he made it about half way through the camp, turned around, got outside the wire and burned his boots. The description and the pictures Grandpa has are pretty horrible) He was also involved in finding Nazi stolen art up near Bad Ishl as the war was finishing up. Oh, and he still hates German rifled 88mm artillery.

Brad

thanks Zaneeee. Been wanting to go to France just to see where we landed and such so naturally the pix interrested me.

I was there for the 40th in '84 I wanted to see the cliffs where 2nd Batt "led the way". My respect for the original rangers went WAY up.

In Sept of that year, I went to Italy to see Cisterna where 3rd and 5th Batt died. Sobering.

Also got to do a staff ride of the St Vith area during Dec 84 to see where the 82nd Abn Div almost refused Montgomery's orders to withdraw. It was the only time US Paratroopers ever gave up ground that they had fought for and both Ridgeway and Gavin mention their anguish at giving it up in their memoirs.