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Author Topic: Planes, trains, and automobiles....
booger
TOO BIG TO FAIL
Member # 3602

Icon 1 posted March 19, 2015 10:42 AM      Profile for booger   Email booger         Edit/Delete Post 
…describes the manner of transportation I used the last 12 days while on a trip across the Atlantic. Just got back yesterday from a bucket list trip. My wife and I were fortunate enough to be able to spend about 4 days in London, 3 days in Cologne, Germany, and then head to Normandy to track my dad’s route from landing on Utah Beach on June 6th, 1944, to his ultimately being wounded in the battle for St. Lo, France the following July. After Normandy, we headed to Paris for a day before heading home on Tuesday.

I will be posting pictures as we get them pulled off the digital camera. The Normandy trip was a dream for me as my dad always talked about returning someday. As I alluded to in an earlier post about pheasant season, he passed in 1977 when I was just 16.

Last Friday the 13th, we left Cologne on the train at 6 am, and finally ended up in Bayeau, France at 6 pm that evening. We rented a car for 24 hours and took Saturday to hit the places I wanted to get to. I was really surprised on how easy it was to drive there. My wife was a road warrior…she drove and I co-piloted.

We hit St. Lo and then headed to Utah Beach. Weather really sucked…40 degrees, rainy, and the wind coming off the channel/Atlantic Ocean was gusting to 60 mph.

We then headed to St. Mere Eglise, the first French town to be liberated by the paratroopers. There is a cool memorial to the guy that got hung up on church steeple early in the morning of June 6th. The 101st Airborne museum is located there, too.

We passed through St. Marie Dumont, (one of the towns chronicled in the Band of Brother’s series), and then headed to Omaha Beach and the American cemetery.

I thought I was patriotic until I actually saw the cemetery at Omaha Beach. I don’t see how anyone could not view that place without a lump in their throat and/or a tear in their eye.

Out last stop of the day was Point du Hoc. You may not recognize the name, but it was in Saving Private Ryan, shown when Tom Hanks and his Rangers were scaling the cliffs to get to the German guns. As I stood at the memorial where Reagan is standing in his 1984 speech there, (put a link to youtube below), I was simply amazed that any of those guys made it up the cliffs alive. They had to climb 90 to 100 feet straight up all the while getting shot at from above—the guys were simply studs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEIqdcHbc8I

I will post some pictures later, but the damage from the US Navy’s 20” guns are still there. The shell craters are still 18-20’ deep and 15-20’ across—some 70+ years later. Looks like the back 9 on the devil’s golf course.

I brought back some sand from Utah Beach to give to my 91 year old mom, and to put on my mantle at home.

I spent the 36 hours in Normandy with a continual lump in my throat, and can honestly say it was something I will never forget.

[ March 19, 2015, 12:48 PM: Message edited by: booger ]

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If we ever forget we are one Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under--Ronald Reagan

Posts: 911 | From: Bob Dole Country | Registered: Apr 2010  |  IP: Logged
jimanaz
2nd Place RICHARD FARNSWORTH LOOK-A-LIKE CONTEST
Member # 3689

Icon 1 posted March 19, 2015 12:37 PM      Profile for jimanaz           Edit/Delete Post 
That's cool, Tim! Looking forward to the pictures.
Posts: 940 | From: AZ | Registered: Oct 2010  |  IP: Logged
Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2

Icon 1 posted March 19, 2015 12:44 PM      Profile for Leonard   Author's Homepage   Email Leonard         Edit/Delete Post 
Sounds like a worthwhile trip.

You know, a friend of mine died about four years ago but we were planning a trip to those places with a small group. He planned a trip every year, but this was the first I was planning on attending. Of course, it didn't happen.

But, we did attend a couple of reunions, one in Vegas and another in Lake Tahoe.

One of the places he talked about and I wouldn't know the name, but he said it's a much bigger cemetery than the one at Normandy.

Jim Peterson was my platoon leader, in 25th Signal, in Kaiserslaughtern, Germany. We had a long friendship after getting into a knockdown fistfight after a Christmas party. I probably could have gone to Leavenworth for thirty years, but it was a scandal, and nobody talked about it, hush-hush, thank God. Funny how those things turn out. When I didn't write, my wife did.

We went back to Germany, by way of Paris in 1989, rented a Mercedes and drove to Frankfort and Karlsruhe and then headed on to Berlin. One of the first to cross Checkpoint Charlie on Thanksgiving Day. I have pictures somewhere of me standing in front of the wall.

I was never able to locate the barracks where I was stationed, and we lived right across the street. We used to bug out and go there during the day, but a few of the sergeants caught on and would come inquiring at the front while we piled out the back. We liked the parties because we saved the beer bottles and bought bread with it. We kinda starved, in those days, living on the economy.

There are some delightful cities in Europe. One that stands out is Paris, perhaps followed by Amsterdam. But touring by auto, it is amazing that you can pull off at any little obscure town and they all have an impressive cathedral. We were stationed right on the Rhine River and France is on the other side. A little less clean but still has charm. I remember riding a train all night from Paris one time, with my feet on the seat opposite. As soon as we crossed the border, outside Frankfort, and a German crew took over, the conductor told me to get my feet off the seat.

Booger, you will always be glad that you made that trip, even if nobody else remembers.

Good hunting. El Bee

edit: one thing I found, about Europe, in general. The cities weren't designed for cars and many of them have partitioned the central part of town into an outdoor mall, no cars, just walk from store to store. Interesting. It takes a while to get used to the pace. Wednesday is shopping day, stores are open later.

[ March 19, 2015, 12:53 PM: Message edited by: Leonard ]

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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!

Posts: 31348 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003  |  IP: Logged
Paul Melching
Radical Operator Forum "You won't get past the front gate"
Member # 885

Icon 1 posted March 19, 2015 01:09 PM      Profile for Paul Melching           Edit/Delete Post 
Sounds like a trip you will never forget I cant imagine what it must feel like to stand on that ground .What incredibly COURAGEOUS Men.

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Those who value security over liberty soon will have neither !

Posts: 4188 | From: The forest ! north of the dez. | Registered: Jul 2006  |  IP: Logged
Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2

Icon 1 posted March 19, 2015 01:57 PM      Profile for Leonard   Author's Homepage   Email Leonard         Edit/Delete Post 
I can tell you this much. I didn't have a single adult relative that wasn't a veteran and even if he had not seen actual combat , had serviced planes flying over the Himalayas. No a single adult, when I was a kid had not been overseas....except my father.

He spent the entire war at George Air Base in Victorville. They could never find a gas mask that would seal around his face so he was an instructor instead of a tailgunner, not a large man. There was a fear of lethal gas, just as there was at the start of Desert Storm, and you could be gassed in the barracks just as well as in a foxhole.

But, the thing is, nobody ever said a word about him staying stateside. He served just like the rest of them and got out later than everybody else because he lacked the bonus points.

My uncle, (we were very close) survived Iwo Jima. He gave me the .45 he carried all through the pacific. Those guys were heros, there is no doubt. Tom Brokaw wrote a book titled "The Greatest Generation" and that is beyond dispute. And here we are 70 years later with a fucking limpdick for President.

Good hunting. El Bee

edit: I forgot to ask; The Navy had 20" guns?

[ March 19, 2015, 02:00 PM: Message edited by: Leonard ]

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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!

Posts: 31348 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003  |  IP: Logged
Moe
Knows what it's all about
Member # 4494

Icon 1 posted March 19, 2015 03:39 PM      Profile for Moe           Edit/Delete Post 
Sounds like an awesome trip. My uncle fought in Europe under Patton. His son, my cousin, would be tickled to make that trip.

My old man fought in the Pacific for the entirety of the war. When I was 15 he was stationed in Southern Taiwan for about 2 1/2 years but we went to Japan, Okinawa, Korea and Hong Kong and back then there were a lot of reminders of the war all around us. To better understand what happened I became a WWII buff.

When I moved out on my own I went to work for Bendix Field Engineering and went to the Philippines and to Guam and Midway plus stints in places I'm still not allowed to talk about. Talking with older Filipinos about the Japanese occupation was interesting. My girlfriend's father, a doctor and a mucky muck with the World Health Organization, had a scar across his cheek from a Japanese officer's sabre. He was slapped with it. He didn't think much of Japs.

I envy you your trip and I fully understand your feelings. I'm not above getting goose bumps standing close to all of that history.

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I snatch kisses. And vice versa.

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Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7

Icon 1 posted March 19, 2015 06:11 PM      Profile for Cdog911   Author's Homepage   Email Cdog911         Edit/Delete Post 
I envy you for the places you saw, and the experiences of being there. And I pray to God that we don't someday hold such places on our own soil with such reverence.

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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.

Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003  |  IP: Logged
booger
TOO BIG TO FAIL
Member # 3602

Icon 1 posted March 20, 2015 04:50 AM      Profile for booger   Email booger         Edit/Delete Post 
Lance...I definitely agree! We don't need those memorials on our own soil.

LB...I was going off of the information at Point du Hoc...they said the Navy ships were firing with 20" and 5" guns...I am sure a 5" gun makes a damn big hole, too.

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If we ever forget we are one Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under--Ronald Reagan

Posts: 911 | From: Bob Dole Country | Registered: Apr 2010  |  IP: Logged
Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2

Icon 1 posted March 20, 2015 07:48 AM      Profile for Leonard   Author's Homepage   Email Leonard         Edit/Delete Post 
I might be a WWII buff, myself. It's amazing to think what they did in four years. Amazing is not too strong a word.

There is a lot of chatter about the Russian contribution to defeating the Germans. Yeah, maybe. But it helps when Hitler changes direction and the winter sets in, That, more or less cooked their goose.

We sent a lot of gear to the Russians, hard to speculate how thing would have turned out if left to their own devices?

Some years ago, I worked with a German who was a master machinist. He was a very young man drafted into the Wermach.(sp)

Anyway, one of the interesting things he told me was that the Germans hauled around a huge pot and used it to cook whatever they could find. They never had C rations, K rations or Quartermaster food supply. Just catch local chickens and throw them in the pot. Tomorrow, it could be mule? But, that explains the Russian habit of scorched earth. Don't leave anything the Germans could use.

I was one of those that never fully appreciated a strong Navy. The idea that Hitler could rule the oceans with U Boats couldn't possibly work forever. Didn't even have landing craft with which to invade England. V-1 bombs, instead?

But, one of the smartest things we ever did was those aircraft carriers. You just cannot go to war with anybody but your neighbors unless you can project Naval power.

Good hunting. El Bee

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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!

Posts: 31348 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003  |  IP: Logged
knockemdown
Our staff photo editing Guru, par excellence
Member # 3588

Icon 1 posted March 30, 2015 09:17 AM      Profile for knockemdown   Author's Homepage           Edit/Delete Post 
Hey Tim, for some reason I hadn't read this post!
Hope you can get a few pictures up to share, I'd especially love to see those from France...
Been lucky enough to visit Cologne for a few days myself, really enjoyed the short time spent there. Outdoor lounges drinking Früh & Gaffel Kölsch, the Dom, walking the bridge over the Rhine...great memories! We then hopped a train on to Bruges, another awe inspiring city...

Anyhoo, get some pics up, would ya?!?

Posts: 2202 | From: behind fascist lines | Registered: Mar 2010  |  IP: Logged
booger
TOO BIG TO FAIL
Member # 3602

Icon 1 posted March 31, 2015 09:49 AM      Profile for booger   Email booger         Edit/Delete Post 
Fred,
I will get them posted as soon as my better half gets them downloaded from our camera. She was looking through them last night and she took over 4,000 pics in about 12 days...it might be awhile before I get through the pics I want to post!

I want to post the pics from Normandy for everyone here, but we also took a side trip to Purdey and Sons in London.

My wife took my picture in front of 13 of Purdey's best side by sides which had price tags totalling about $2.2 million US dollars. That was on my bucket list as well!

The Dom was amazing, and we drank our share of Kolsch beer...the only bad thing was the 'test tube' glasses they were served in!

I would go back to London and rural France in a heartbeat. Didn't care for Paris...very, very filthy and the people were extremely rude.

Hope to have the pics soon!

[ March 31, 2015, 09:52 AM: Message edited by: booger ]

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If we ever forget we are one Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under--Ronald Reagan

Posts: 911 | From: Bob Dole Country | Registered: Apr 2010  |  IP: Logged
knockemdown
Our staff photo editing Guru, par excellence
Member # 3588

Icon 1 posted March 31, 2015 10:41 AM      Profile for knockemdown   Author's Homepage           Edit/Delete Post 
Those test tube glasses make it easy to fit in these!!!
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I recall eating at an ancient restaurant one night, on my buddy's recommend. We each had a giant Schweinshaxe (pork shank) and washed it down with a yard of Kölsch.
We were the only 'tourists' in the place, barely getting by with our broken German. It seemed the local clientele were impressed with our order choice, and by the end of the meal, the entire place was shouting "Zum Wohl!" between tables and saluting each other with glasses of beer held high...

Good times!!!

Posts: 2202 | From: behind fascist lines | Registered: Mar 2010  |  IP: Logged


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