Normandy..rather, Normandie
I had just mentioned that I have been watching the documentary series, The World At War, and there were a few parts I was looking forward to watch. They were:
- The fight at the D-Day beaches
- The fight at Iwo Jima
- The fight for Berlin
- Speeches by Churchill
- The Fat Man & The Little Boy
Well, I am off to see the first for real in a few hours..! Not the fight, of course. The beaches. There were 5 beaches where the allied forces landed. They were code named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. While the American forces landed at Utah & Omaha (duh!), the British and some Canadian forces landed at Gold, Juno and Sword. While the 5 landings together are called the D-Day landings (incidentally called Jour J in French), it is the fight at the Omaha beach that is the one people are speaking of when they talk of Normandy. It was the beach where the allied forces met the toughest resistance, it was described as the 2nd hell on earth, after Iwo Jima.
I will try and hit this Omaha stretch, it is where the famous WW II cemetery is present, the one which we all saw in Saving Private Ryan and countless other movies & news footages. Hope I manage to get to those places. Need to wake up in less than 4 hours to start the journey! Till then the famous photo, and the military map of the area..!
The Omaha beach then
And a glorious picture of the beach now
And the war memorial on the beach
Will post my pics too (fingers crossed).
- The fight at the D-Day beaches
- The fight at Iwo Jima
- The fight for Berlin
- Speeches by Churchill
- The Fat Man & The Little Boy
Well, I am off to see the first for real in a few hours..! Not the fight, of course. The beaches. There were 5 beaches where the allied forces landed. They were code named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. While the American forces landed at Utah & Omaha (duh!), the British and some Canadian forces landed at Gold, Juno and Sword. While the 5 landings together are called the D-Day landings (incidentally called Jour J in French), it is the fight at the Omaha beach that is the one people are speaking of when they talk of Normandy. It was the beach where the allied forces met the toughest resistance, it was described as the 2nd hell on earth, after Iwo Jima.
I will try and hit this Omaha stretch, it is where the famous WW II cemetery is present, the one which we all saw in Saving Private Ryan and countless other movies & news footages. Hope I manage to get to those places. Need to wake up in less than 4 hours to start the journey! Till then the famous photo, and the military map of the area..!
The Omaha beach then
And a glorious picture of the beach now
And the war memorial on the beach
Will post my pics too (fingers crossed).
Great post dude.
ReplyDeleteI've always been fascinated by World War II. Do look out for cemeteries of Indian soldiers who were killed in France and Europe.
Regarding World at War - watch out for Stalingard, Kursk and other massive battles on the Eastern front. For Germany, world War 2 was the war with Soviet Russia. Russia calls it the "Great Patriotic War".
Arguably Subhas Chandra Bose's exploits in WWII led to Indian Independence. My grandfather tells me of peoples' excitement when they learned Subhas was at Imphal attacking British troops. Also, in the immediate aftermath of the war, Indian troops rebelled against the British encouraged by the former INA. The British realized the game was up.
Netaji's wife and daughter still live in Austra. There was a feature on Netaji recently - http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/slide-show-1-an-interview-with-netajis-grand-nephew/20110531.htm
Yeah, will do. Hadn't thought of checking out the Indian cemeteries. Good suggestion!
ReplyDeleteAnd man, those Russia episodes were legendary. I don't think any other country suffered anything close to what Russia did during the war, and it was actually the US that gained the most from the war..!
And did INA attack Kohima too or was it just at Imphal that they helped the Japanese army?
If I can, I will try and meet Netaji's family..! I don't know how accessible they are, but I will try! Thanks for all these suggestions.
Suggest more WW II things you reckon I should do dude. Will try out as many as possible. Have already been to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, but that has become a touristy thing. I am yet to go to Berlin, Prague and Budapest though. They should be a goldmine for WW stuff!
Dude go to Auschwitz,Poland !!!
ReplyDeleteAnd dude, I've always told you to watch these 3 documentaries for sure :
1. Ascent of Man
2. Cosmos
3. World at War
Glad that you started with WAW.