Greetings from Normandy:

[OMCHamlin]

I was born in Frankfurt, Germany (WEST Germany, to be exact!) and then we went back there, this time to Heidelberg, about '69 - '72. This time, dad and I took a couple of days to go see Normandy, and areas nearby where he fought. That was a life shaping trip, from the middle aged French gal that thinks she remembers dad's unit when they came through, to his visit with his buddy, Walter Grassell, Point Du Hoc, The Utah Beach Museum. Things were different back in the early 70's, heck, dad wanted to take me to the sub pens at Brest, but we couldn't go because they were still war damaged. And it was pretty fresh in his mind I guess, back then.

 

[Melnic]

Thx for posting
You are seeing more than we did on our tour in 2019

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[ground chuck]

I wish every american had a chance to visit. If you ever get a chance to go, go you will not be disappointed. I stood on Omaha beach and was brought to tears

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[tallen702]

Driving out of Mainz this morning. Not much in the way of pertinent WWII history for our tour (283rd FAB). My grandfather traveled through here on his way to the Colmar Pocket which is where we're headed today.

For anyone curious, we booked our trip through Stephen Ambrose Tours, but are doing a custom, private tour following my grandfather's battalion's route through the war. Our guide/ historian is Stephen Alan Bourque, and you couldn't all for anyone better. Look him up and you'll see his C.V. and books. It's truly the trip of a lifetime.

 

[tallen702]

Visited Ostheim where my grandfather's battalion deployed to start hammering the Colmar Pocket.

There's a nice memorial there to the French soldiers and civilians killed in both WWI and WWII. they allay have a plaque commemorating the 3rd Division.

Then we visited Colmar itself with a memorial to both French and Polish forces in the city center.

 

[tallen702]

The site of Audie Murphy's heroic stand, and the French cemetery at Sigolsheim.

 

[tallen702]

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[tallen702]

Nuremberg, zeppelin field/ parade grounds. This is where the Nazis held their rallies. It's been used a a race track and sporting field since the end of the war. Efforts are underway to preserve the remaining structures and reopen the entrance hall to the main seating area.

 

[tallen702]

Nuremberg SS HQ. It was the 2nd Armored Cavalry HQ until the end of the Cold War. Now it's used to house displaced persons and war refugees.

 

[tallen702]

Nuremberg "Hall of Justice" where the Nazi war criminals were tried and sentenced.

 

[tallen702]

Dachau. The 283rd FAB was attached to the 42nd Division where they assisted in the liberation and documentation of the camp. My grandfather flew over it in the spotter plane just prior to the liberation and the pilot and he reported what they had seen to HQ.

Edit:
I didn't want to take many pictures here. It just doesn't feel right. Especially since my family has pictures that my grandfather's friend (only ever referred to as "Smith" in his letters home) took during the liberation, developed, and had his friends in the unit send them to their families to let the world know what they had seen. My grandfather sent the pictures he was given to my grandmother, and we still have them to this day. A lot of evil took place here. Dachau was the template by which all other concentration camps were built. Originally it was designed to house political prisoners who were released after several years of internment and forced labor. Once the round-up of other "undesirables" was started, though, the camp quickly became overcrowded. As the allies advanced on the outlying camps (Buchenwald, Auschwitz, etc.) trains carrying prisoners from those camps soon started arriving daily at the more centrally-located camps like Dachau, often with most of the passengers already dead or dying. The grounds were filled with German teenagers looking like most teenagers on a school-sponsored trip. The museum is in the main administrative building and was pretty packed with pictures, videos, etc. showing the gruesomeness of the camps. Outside of that, the rest of the grounds are far too "sterilized" for my liking and allowed people to skip over the lessons that should be learned here. It was tame enough in the grounds that my son (8 years old) could go with us.

Photos:
1. The infamous entry gate.
2. The "new" crematorium that was built to handle the influx of new prisoners after the original political prisoners were released in the late 1930s. Gas chambers disguised as showers were built, but supposedly never used. That said, prisoners were gassed in the actual shower room in the main administration building. Russian POWs were treated especially poorly and most who came here were murdered outright.
3. Execution wall with blood ditch behind the crematorium site.
4. Site marker for the execution range with blood ditch.
5. The main grounds. The barracks were torn down in the late 40s/early 50s. Two replicas have been re-built.
6. The main administration building and workshops. Now the museum.
7. The fence. There was an 8ft deep anti-personnel ditch, then razor wire, then a gap to allow for clear shots at escaping prisoners, then a 10' high electrified razor wire fence, a gravel track for dogs and shooting lanes followed by an 8' high wall to keep the camp away from the eyes of the world. On the other side of the compound. There was a moat beyond the electrified fence. Many prisoners simply walked into the area to commit suicide.
8. The original main gate with Arbeit Macht Frei (Work will make you free). It is now secured in the museum as it was stolen in 2014 and eventually recovered sometime later in Norway. The gate at the Jourhaus (main prisoner entrance) seen in the first picture is the replica that was put in place after this one was stolen. Interestingly enough, the original gate was made by political prisoners and did reflect the original intent of the camp. It was supposed to be a re-education and work camp for those opposed to the regime and many of them were indeed freed after their initial internment. It was only after the round-up of non-political prisoners and the construction of purpose-built death camps like Auschwitz whose gate carried the same slogan that it became the cynical slogan that it is viewed as today. As an aside, the Nazis became much more direct with their camp slogans at Buchenwald. The slogan at the gate there was "Jedem das Seine" which translates to "You get what you deserve" showing the shift in the purpose of the camps.

 

[gem357]

Well, really, I'm on the high-speed train to Brussels as I am writing this, but I spent the last two days at the invasion beaches and it was amazing! I figured I'd post some relevant pictures as we visit more and more WWII sites over the next two weeks. First up are shots of Sword Beach, the artificial "Mulberry" harbor, and a German coastal artillery position.

I'll post Omaha and Utah pictures later.

Thanks for all the photos. Important that we don't forget.

 

[Benny]

Thanks for sending these amazing pictures. Normandy in on my bucket list.


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[BrianS]

Seems like an appropriate place to put this...

Bradford Freeman, Last Surviving Member of WWII 'Band of Brothers,' Dies at 97

The Easy Company veteran parachuted into France on D-Day and fought in major European campaigns during the last year of the war

www.smithsonianmag.com

 

[Trepang]

Thank you for sharing the pictures.
I am glad you got a chance to see all these incredible places in our history.

One of my life's biggest regrets as that while I was in the Navy in places like France, Germany, Japan, Okinawa and the like I was more interested in the bars than I was the history that was at my fingertips.

 

[tallen702]

Foggy and rainy day yesterday at Kehlsteinhaus (Eagle's Nest).

Back in the states again after a 9 hour flight. Won't get to DC until late tonight though. I'll go back and edit my posts with some more details about the pictures later this weekend. I was posting and typing from a phone the past two weeks.


Edit:
Photos:
1. The tunnel leading from the parkplatz near the top of Kehlstein to the internal solid brass elevator that takes you to the "Eagles Nest" (Kehlsteinhaus). It is lined in rough-cut marble and was meant to be walked, though most Nazi officials had their drivers drive down the tunnel to the elevator reception room and then back all the way out. It's not that wide and must have been a pain for the drivers.
2. The entrance to the elevator tunnel with Kehlsteinhaus directly above on the ridge.
3. Kehlsteinhaus through the fog. Unfortunately, it was a wet and rainy day and we couldn't see much.
4. The red Italian marble fireplace gifted by Mussolini. It was damaged by GI's who chipped away at it for souvenirs to take with them. The damage is most evident at the edges of the mantle. The picture above the mantle is of the Berghof, Hitler's actual house. Many, many people think Kehlsteinhaus was Hitler's house. It was an entertainment space for special guests and high ranking officials of the Nazi Party. Hitler rarely visited.
5. Me, my wife, and my son enjoying lunch in the main room. The site was converted to a restaurant in the 1960s. The food is actually very good.
6. Details of the construction. The workmanship was top-notch.
7. A view out the ridge towards one of the many mountain peaks. Again, we were socked in by rain and fog all day. It was the only day of our trip that it rained.

 

[Ngrovcam]

Thank you!!!!

MY great regret is that I was never able to talk my dad into going back so we could retrace his steps as an infantryman with the 259th Infantry, 65th Infantry Division. He had previously been an MP in Edinburgh, until the Army took half his unit (751st MP Battalion, Co A) and turned them into infantryman. He reverted to an MP after VE Day.

He just didn’t want to go back…particularly after liberating, then working as an MP, at several work and concentration camps in Austria. That was something that he hardly ever spoke of, but that haunted his dreams always.

I think we often forget how some of those guys suffered from their experiences because we judge based upon some of the old World War II movies that sanitized a lot. The reality must have been vastly different, as many here, with similar experiences, can attest.

 

[teratos]

Thank you!!!!

MY great regret is that I was never able to talk my dad into going back so we could retrace his steps as an infantryman with the 259th Infantry, 65th Infantry Division. He had previously been an MP in Edinburgh, until the Army took half his unit (751st MP Battalion, Co A) and turned them into infantryman. He reverted to an MP after VE Day.

He just didn’t want to go back…particularly after liberating, then working as an MP, at several work and concentration camps in Austria. That was something that he hardly ever spoke of, but that haunted his dreams always.

I think we often forget how some of those guys suffered from their experiences because we judge based upon some of the old World War II movies that sanitized a lot. The reality must have been vastly different, as many here, with similar experiences, can attest.

God Bless your Dad. He saw the worst of what humanity is capable of.

 

[tallen702]

Thank you!!!!

MY great regret is that I was never able to talk my dad into going back so we could retrace his steps as an infantryman with the 259th Infantry, 65th Infantry Division. He had previously been an MP in Edinburgh, until the Army took half his unit (751st MP Battalion, Co A) and turned them into infantryman. He reverted to an MP after VE Day.

He just didn’t want to go back…particularly after liberating, then working as an MP, at several work and concentration camps in Austria. That was something that he hardly ever spoke of, but that haunted his dreams always.

I think we often forget how some of those guys suffered from their experiences because we judge based upon some of the old World War II movies that sanitized a lot. The reality must have been vastly different, as many here, with similar experiences, can attest.

You're correct in how everything in the movies is sanitized by quite a bit. That's why Saving Private Ryan was noted by many vets as being the closest thing to real action that Hollywood had ever produced when it hit the big screen back in the late 1990s. Even then, a lot of stuff has been sanitized and old tropes and mythologies persist.

If you are interested in following his path on your own, Stephen Ambrose Historical Tours is the only game in town that will do a custom trip like ours. We tried everyone else and were told that they would do "their trip" and just point out where the 283rd FAB was during the timeframe. SAHT contracted Stephen Alan Bourque and had him research the 283rd's moves through the war. We also supplied him with info from my grandfather's letters home to supplement the unit history so we could pinpoint locations even more. He was able to tell us where my grandfather was, what he was doing, what was going on around him at the time, etc., and took us to all the little towns where he bivouacked. Steve is a hell of a historian and knows Europe well from his time with the (IIRC) 2nd Armored Cavalry when he was stationed at Merrell Barracks (the former SS barracks) at Nuremberg.

I highly recommend taking the trip to anyone interested in WWII history. It was emotional and awe-inspiring on a level greater than I expected.

 

[mawkie]

Appreciate you sharing all of this with us.