I found this sequence of 'then and now' photographs fascinating and moving:
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"...the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."
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Powerful pictures indeed. I was just thinking how similar the then and nows for the second location were when I saw it was...Weymouth!
Pithy article in The Times a couple of days ago - Max Hastings reminded us that allied bombardments killed as many French civilians as the British and US armies lost getting ashore.
indeed.
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Crumbs, yes,
the landings were one of my father's wartime 'adventures', as an "Acting Temporary Lt Commander" (!), mentioned in despatches.
It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.Comment
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So it was! Hadn't spotted that!!!Originally posted by Richard Tarleton View Post
And as regards casualties - yes, this link was sent to me by someone many of whose family (save his own grandparents) were killed in Caen after D-Day...
"...the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."
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I visited most of these locations in May 2004 but one of the most powerful 'then and now' images isn't included here. There is a 1944 photograph taken on the road near St Lambert which was the escape route for the German Army following the Battle of Falaise. The 1944 photograph showed a scene of utter destruction and total carnage and it was incredibly moving to stand in the same location from where the picture was taken and see exactly the same farmhouse in the background. It's a pity I haven't got the wherewithal to try and download both the 1944 image (be on the web somewhere) and my own photograph.
As mentioned on another thread, I'm currently reading Antony Beavor's book on D-Day and the Battle of Normandy. I do urge anyone interested to go on one of those escorted battlefield tours ( I went with Leger Holidays). The area the Normandy campaign covered is much more than you can take in with a guide book and a car and it's much better to have knowledgeable tour guides to take you round. In this way I went across the entire battlefield area from St Mere Eglise in the west to the Merville Battery in the east and taking in Falaise on the final day."The sound is the handwriting of the conductor" - Bernard HaitinkComment
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Some 2,500 French civilians lost their lives in the first 24 hours of the Normandy landings; in the subsequent fighting some 57,000 French civilians were killed. The allies dropped 518,000 tons of bombs on French soil - more than seven times the amount the Luftwaffe dropped on England...Originally posted by Richard Tarleton View Post
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