Part 3 - Normandy continued

More of the Normandy area and what we found there.

A fast rusting monument

An interesting comparison to the Vimoutiers Tiger is this Greyhound we came across whilst working our way along the coast, I neglected to write down its location, anyone know?
Thanks to James Gray of Springfield, Illinois, USA, here is the details of this location: The rusting Greyhound is on Utah Beach just south of Ravenoville-Plage somewhere in the neighborhood of (if not at) les Dunes-de-Varreville. We were in convoy out of Ste. Mere Eglise to the coast thru Ravenoville to Ravenoville-Plage. We turned south along the coast and stopped at a parking area where a break in the seawall allowed you onto the beach.
The monument in the background of your picture looks like the monument that was there. There was a large bunker back to the north once you got onto the beach. Of course our stay was short as a storm blew in. We had rented a WWII jeep (actually a properly marked Hotchkiss) for six days and this was our first day out in it!! No side curtains, so when the rain came it was like cold shotgun pellets hitting you. At least they were hitting my girlfriend, since we were headed south again. I was fortunately/unfortunately shielded pretty much by her!!! By the time we got to the museum on Utah Beach I thought she was gonna have me take the jeep back!!!
The closer you get the worse you realise the Greyhound is. Especially when you look inside. Although it is kept painted externally, the sea air is winning.

Underneath

The view underneath shows what salt air can do to something as heavy built as even an armoured car. Look carefully and you will see that the closest spring has "exploded" with rust and a large part of it is missing.
The spring on the other side is heading the same way. Note the degree of rusting to the other parts.

Another bunker, this time Utah beach.

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Nearby was a museum with the remains of 2 Amtraks out the front and I really do mean remains. It wasn't worth tanking a photo as they were more a collection of rust than a vehicle. In the car park was this GAZ-46 Russian amphibious Jeep, these vehicles have become quite popular in europe as the prices asked for the original American version puts them out of reach of most collectors. GAZ-46 prices seem to be going the same way.

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You never know what you will see up a side street.

On another day we were on our way through Arromanche and spotted the Grizzly and Stuart again. Looks like they were still having engine problems with the Grizzly.

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Tide's out.

As the tide was out we took the opportunity to have a good look at the Caissons on the beach. Whilst there some MV owners turned up for a photo shoot, since they were all nicely posed I took one of them too. You will notice I took some of these photo's from on top of the main Caisson; I don't recommend it as it is covered in barnacles, slime, has several missing hatch covers where you could fall in and not be able to get back out, if you survived the fall (it is a LONG drop) and is tilted at a steep angle.

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Download the big pic by clicking on the small pic...

Download the big pic by clicking on the small pic...

Download the big pic by clicking on the small pic...

In 1994 when I was last there, I heard about the D-Day parade in Bayeux. But none of those I was with would go. I got the impression I was missing out badly. So this time I made sure I went. However, I still struck the same attitude as before when I asked about it in conversations with other collectors we talked to at museums and sites. The general reaction when asked if they were going was usually along the lines of 'waste of time', or 'can't be bothered'. All rather odd.

So off we went. The more we saw and the longer we stayed, the more I realised why I had struck this appathetic attitude to the parade.
We were told that a local supermarket owner has "bought" the parade route, I never did get an explanation of what this meant; whether he owns the road, the rights to the parade or all the buildings along the route?
Whatever, he can charge the participants an entry fee, some of the amounts we were told were in the unbelievable category, whilst another participant said it was "by innvotation only" and he had not been charged anything. The owner also makes the rules; such as "uniforms only, no jeans or you will be expelled", "no persons on the exterior of vehicle", except that a Duck went past with with people draped all over it and most of them in jeans - french rego plates.
The crowd control was non-existant and the vehicle drivers were constantly having to stop for people crouched or lying in front of them taking photo's. When I saw kids sticking their hands into the tracks of half-tracks etc, I had seen enough.
By this point, the seemingly endless line of vehicles, especially Jeeps, had bored all those I was with and they had retreated to a Coffee Shop around the corner, so I joined them.
What struck me as really weird was the reaction of many of those in the crowd. They kept yelling "thank you" and shaking the hands of the crews of the vehicles. I was told they were saying thank you for being liberated. As most of those doing this were too young to have been alive at the time, including the vehicle crews, it was all a bit bizarre.
Later we caught up with the rest of our group (who had been in the parade) and they were washed out, especially the driver who had been scared stiff he was going to run over someone or that a child would go under his back wheels.

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Download the big pic by clicking on the small pic...

Download the big pic by clicking on the small pic...

Download the big pic by clicking on the small pic...

Download the big pic by clicking on the small pic...

Download the big pic by clicking on the small pic...

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After D-Day.

We did a bit more site seeing which included both the privately owned War Museum at Bayeux and the "Peace Museum/Memorial" at Caen. The former I liked whilst the latter I didn't, whilst those I was with liked it. At Bayeux you can get within a few feet of the exhibits and stick your nose on the display cabinet glass (if you need to look that close). Whilst the Caen offering is really a huge building with a collection of photo's, about 3/4 hour of films, and a BIG shop area, my impression was that it was a government money maker, perhaps I am wrong. There is a Panther which is inside a theatre area, but at a lower level, you cannot get anywhere near it to have a look. So in reality there are 3 panzers in Normandy, if you also count the Hetzer. But only the Tiger is accesible to the public as the Hetzer is on a plinth protected by a hedge.

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Point-du-Hoc.

This was once a German coastal battery site. It had a duel with allied warships (battleships included) and it lost. Some of the bunkers are still recognisable some are just chunks of concrete. The area is well kept and appears to be constantly being mown. In one of the bunkers you can see where the entire roof is now about 1' across from where it is supposed to be, whether it was pushed sideways or got lifted up and then dumped back down I couldn't tell.

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Casual encounters.

As we moved around the area we constanly came across collectors and their vehicles, they like us, needed to eat. Here, we are leaving a supermarket and this "Diamond T" and GMC are waiting to enter, could someone please correcly identify the vehicles?

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We heard about another swap meet, again there was only scant information as to where it was located. We eventually tracked it down to a farmers yard near Vierville-sur-mer. It turned out to be a smaller version of Monteburg (same vendors). The yard was composed of rocks about 6" in diameter with people falling over them whilst trying to avoid all the cow poo. On the way out, these 2 half tracks and Jeep arrived. Whoever it is that organised this little group doesn't do things by half, they were fully kitted out as were the passengers, right down to Thompson sub-machine guns webbing and packs.

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So that's it for Normandy, we then headed north to Belgium, the Netherlands and then into Germany. I quite enjoyed the Normandy experience; there are organisational short comings between the different groups that are involved, mainly lack of information, but all in all it was well worthwhile. It is the individual collectors from many countries, the expense and effort they go to in order to get their vehicles there, that gives this event such a unique atmosphere, the history of the location helps too! What I have shown you is an overview of what there is to see and experience, there are more bunkers and museums than I have mentioned. There were lots and lots of vehicles, but it was never my intention to create a photo record of all those present. Just at our campsite alone there would have been around 50 MV's ranging from Jeeps to Ferret's (the heavy armoured stuff was closer to Arromanche).

To continue the holiday, click = Germany