Le Mans 2014 date announced

[Canada Phil]

Anyone else planning on going to the d-day 70th anniversary the week before Le Mans?

I booked a campsite in Normandy a while ago as a lot of hotels were fully booked.
Plan so far is arrive Thurs 5th then drive down to Le Mans on the 8th what a week that'll be 

tempted to myself as I visited all the beaches etc 2 years ago

Seems like a good idea,

simple question what is best book to read about the D-Day landings?

Hi Neil,
          There are many of course. Try this one  http://www.youtube.com/channel/HC5MYycjtjryk  it's in Black and white  . http://www.amazon.com/The-Longest-Day-Classic-D-Day/dp/0671890913 this is an excellent book it's in black and white too  Aren't they all ?
The Movie Saving Private Ryan is a modern take on the evnts of that time. The topic can become a bit of a quest.
D-Day leads into the battle of Normandy.  The internet has so much these days you can research all sorts of things.
Phil

[wishy]

Over the past 3 years or so we have made an effort on the Monday on the way back to Caen to visit "The Beaches".
So far have done the Mulberry Docks,  the observation tower in Ouisteram and this year we visited Point Du Hoc.
Being born not long after the event, all the visits so far have made me realise the commitment that our previous generations made to make the world a safer place to be and not to be ruled by Fascists and Despots.

The one thing about Point Du Hoc is that it has been left as was and when you walk around you get the picture that it certainly was not the place to be on the day of the invasion. The craters are everywhere and there was certainly no where to hide..

It is deffo one of the places to visit.

Next year we plan to do Omaha Beach and museum as we did not have time this year to stop off .

[landman]

As 2014 is the 70th anniversary of D-Day I suggest we equip all vehicles with invasion stripes as a mark of respect.

[Barry]

As 2014 is the 70th anniversary of D-Day I suggest we equip all vehicles with invasion stripes as a mark of respect.

Jolly good idea!

[Bentley boy]

As 2014 is the 70th anniversary of D-Day I suggest we equip all vehicles with invasion stripes as a mark of respect.

Love it 

[Jack the Hat]

Bayeux is well worth a visit. We will be going Sunday the 8th. Sidney Bates is buried there, one of the most self sacrificing stories I know of. A sobering start to Le Mans, but we would not be going without people like him.

[Jack the Hat]

With actions like this it makes me so proud to be British.




On a summer day in Normandy, in 1944, a British soldier stepped out of his slit trench and advanced alone through a hail of bullets across a meadow towards a position held by some of the most formidable elements of the German army. Firing his bren gun from the hip, he was hit and fell. He got up and continued his advance, firing all the time. Again he was hit and again he got up, still firing from the hip. Finally he was hit once more and fell for the last time. Nevertheless, mortally wounded, he carried on firing from the prone position in the long grass. He died two days later.

Why would a 23 year-old battle-hardened British corporal throw away his life in a desperate and lonely assault against an attack by 50-60 élite members of an SS Panzer Corps who could, and did, so easily train their machine guns and mortars on him?

Perhaps his anger simply erupted: a few seconds before Sidney began his lone advance, his friend 'Tojo' Tomlin had died in his arms, hit in the head. It was Tojo's bren gun that he was using.

Perhaps Sidney, like so many exhausted soldiers, had simply had enough and decided to end it all: taking as many of the enemy with him as possible.

Or was it that Sidney Bates, a simple working-class lad from London, knew what General Montgomery knew: that the whole Battle of Normandy was to hinge on denying the Germans control of a bleak and apparently obscure but vital hill-top position above the little village of Burcy.

A sergeant who witnessed the event believes that Sidney simply acted as any well-trained, first-rate infantryman would have done. Attack was the best means of defence and by advancing he greatly improved his field of fire.

We'll never know what Sidney was thinking but the consequence of his actions is beyond any doubt. A lone soldier did indeed prevent those élite German forces from taking that hill. And that hill controlled the main east-west road across Normandy. And that road (from Condé-sur-Noireau – Vire) was what the Germans had to control if they were fulfil Hitler's orders and halt the Allied advance in its tracks at Mortain.

Posthumously Sidney Bates won 'a very well-deserved' VC, the highest British military honour. But many who read this excellent book Normandy: The Search For Sidney may conclude that Sidney's greatest memorial is not the medal, nor the monument on the edge of 'his' field, but that Europe is free today because of men like him.


Sidney, is why I have Ruperts Brooke's words on the side of my marquee.

[lynxd67]

As one place not so far mentioned - at least I didn't see it - is the cemetery at Hermanville, five minutes from Caen. I find it very humbling, in this enclave of peace and quiet, to look at the graves, to reflect as a baby boomer what my life might have been like but for them, and to see so many lives cut short not in but before their prime. Living in France I also stop to pay respect, amongst them 900-odd standard gravestones, to pay homage to the three crosses of French green berets, "mort pour la patrie".

[gatordad]

Anyone else planning on going to the d-day 70th anniversary the week before Le Mans?

I booked a campsite in Normandy a while ago as a lot of hotels were fully booked.
Plan so far is arrive Thurs 5th then drive down to Le Mans on the 8th what a week that'll be 

tempted to myself as I visited all the beaches etc 2 years ago

Seems like a good idea,

simple question what is best book to read about the D-Day landings?

As already noted the Stephen Ambrose dday book is the best I've read...and according to a client of mine that was in the first wave, the first 30 minutes of Saving Private Ryan is the closest he has ever seen in its portrayal of the madness of the actual landing. His wife told me that Finally she could begin to understand what he had been saying for the last 50+ years. Worth watching the night before you go there.

[jimclark]

realise the commitment that our previous generations made to make the world a safer place to be and not to be ruled by Fascists and Despots.

Not to be pessimistic, but, where has that sort of heart gone?      (Politicians and everyone...) 

[nopanic - neil]

I see Brittany ferries are taking bookings for next year already (pity still expensive   )

http://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/

[Kev_mk3]

DFDS are also taking bookings for next year already

[LuxExpat]

As 2014 is the 70th anniversary of D-Day I suggest we equip all vehicles with invasion stripes as a mark of respect.

Jolly good idea!

So, white car has black stripes, black car has white stripes, other coloured cars have to add both black and white stripes

[pretzel]

I see Brittany ferries are taking bookings for next year already (pity still expensive   )

http://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/

Not as expensive as they will be in a couple of months time, and currently quite a bit cheaper than the were this year. Better book I suppose ;-)

[JDS]

There's no such thing as a cheap Brittany Ferries ticket - I believe there is some old part-forgotten Gallic law forbidding it