Normandy then and now.

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Just surfing around and stumbled upon this one. Very interesting collection of photos.
http://www.stumbleupon.com/s/#2sCDaR/acidcow.com/pics/3772-normandy_1944_then_and_now_204_pics.html/topichotography

 

[Zemke Fan]

Very, very interesting...

Thanks for sharing these!

 

[J.L. Picard]

Just surfing around and stumbled upon this one. Very interesting collection of photos.
http://www.stumbleupon.com/s/#2sCDaR/acidcow.com/pics/3772-normandy_1944_then_and_now_204_pics.html/topichotography

Fascinant! Thank you for sharing. :eusa_clap

 

[tbrunke]

Great pics, thanks for sharing! It is amazing how many of the buildings are still standing. If it was here in the US they would just tear them down, great to see the French preserving their history.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Great pics, thanks for sharing! It is amazing how many of the buildings are still standing. If it was here in the US they would just tear them down, great to see the French preserving their history.

Yes, that's what impressed me most about the collection of pics. Some of the buildings were all but destroyed, but then carefully restored.

 

[Spitfire]

Very impressive collection - thank you for sharing:eusa_clap

 

[June]

Fantastic pictures !!

 

[murena]

top link,very interesting to compare the pictures. thank you very much for sharing!

murena

 

[Atterbury Dodd]

Great, kind of spooky in a way. Thanks for posting!

 

[Tabasco Joe]

Awesome pictures! I hope yhat I can someday visit Normandy - Heck I want to see all of France and Germany

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Just plain fascinating!!

-dixon cannon

 

[H.Johnson]

These images have a strong resonance for me as I work in Caen regularly (the hotel where I stay is just off one of the photos) and I have family links to the place. I've told this story on the forum before but I can't find the post and in the context of this excellent link it's worth repeating.

My Uncle was in the Staffordshire Yeomanry, which occupied the city in July 1944 after the German resistance finally broke. He was a keen amateur photographer and was taking photos of the devastation (parts of Caen were more badly damaged than appears in these shots) when an officer ordered him to go and take some 'proof of life' photos (like those in the link) of Germany prisoners as the official photographer hadn't turned up. As he was doing this a young German officer among the prisoners hailed him in perfect English and asked him if he was a photography enthusiast. 'Unc' said he was, at which the German said, 'Then you will understand what I am about to ask of you'. To cut a long story short, the German had in his possession a Baby (4x4) Rollieflex and a number of rolls of unexposed film. He was convinced (probably correctly) that this would be taken from him in transit to the POW camp, and asked my Uncle, 'as one photographer to another' to look after it, gave him his family address and asked him to return it to him when the war was over. 'Please use the films to record your victory' he said, which strikes me as rather gallant.

'Unc' used the film to take an album full of shots of Caen and the surrounding areas that are just like the ones in this link, aften featuring his buddies. After demob he tried to find the camera's owner but the address was in Dresden...the whole area had disappeared in the bombing. The officer also seems to have vanished without trace. 'Unc' left me the camera in his will with instructions to find the owner if I could. In spite of my growing experience at tracing WW2 veterans and the availability of the Internet (and the assistance of many kind folk in Germany) I was able to make some progress but neither the officer or his family have been traced reliably. So I still have the Rollei camera and also 'Unc's' Kodak that started this story.

Sorry to bore people with a long story. Thanks so much for the link - it's made me quite nostalgic. I could also tell the (equally boring) story about me taking three Staffs Yeomanry veterans to Caen for the 60th Anniversary of D-Day, but maybe that's for another day...