Some pictures from my trip to France

John Sukey said:
Gardens of stone.:(
Click to expand...

Yep :( My photographic skills (or lack thereof) don't do the size of these cemeteries justice. The American memorial/cemetery for Omaha beach is also quite stunning. These cemeteries are all very indicative of the different cultures I think.
 
I did the trip to France with the military just before I got out. The Dieppe photos really show what the Canadians were up against. And done without adequate aerial or naval bombardment, and landing late on the shores in broad daylight.

Seeing those photos bring back the emotion.

I consider the beaches of Dieppe as holy ground. The one thing that bothered me (as in distasteful...lots of things bothered me about Dieppe) about the whole visit to Dieppe was seeing a monument just below the cliffs with "the right honorable Brian Mulroney" on it. I can think of very few politician's (actually none) who deserve to have their names anywhere near a spot where this country made such a sacrifice.

Seeing the various bunkers, the abandoned howitzers, the bullet holes.....a visit to France is far more moving experience than you will get from any sanitized museum. When looking at the gun emplacements, look at the overlapping arcs of fire, the concrete, the challenges of getting across an open beach and then trying to get over those cliffs or up the paths. It is unbelievable that anyone made it.

Did you take some of the stones from the Dieppe beach? I did...it played such an important part to the disastrous results.
 
stencollector said:
I did the trip to France with the military just before I got out. The Dieppe photos really show what the Canadians were up against. And done without adequate aerial or naval bombardment, and landing late on the shores in broad daylight.

Seeing those photos bring back the emotion.

I consider the beaches of Dieppe as holy ground. The one thing that bothered me (as in distasteful...lots of things bothered me about Dieppe) about the whole visit to Dieppe was seeing a monument just below the cliffs with "the right honorable Brian Mulroney" on it. I can think of very few politician's (actually none) who deserve to have their names anywhere near a spot where this country made such a sacrifice.

Seeing the various bunkers, the abandoned howitzers, the bullet holes.....a visit to France is far more moving experience than you will get from any sanitized museum. When looking at the gun emplacements, look at the overlapping arcs of fire, the concrete, the challenges of getting across an open beach and then trying to get over those cliffs or up the paths. It is unbelievable that anyone made it.

Did you take some of the stones from the Dieppe beach? I did...it played such an important part to the disastrous results.
Click to expand...

It really makes you wonder WTF the planners were thinking. It's not like Dieppe was totally unknown to anyone in Britain - it was a big vacation spot.

This was one of the points for the Officer Cadets who went on the trip. As they were standing on the beach, it was explained to them that the only officers who were critical of the raid plans were the British commandos protecting the flanks. They changed their plans, and the rest of the Canadian officers simply accepted them as is. This is a powerful lesson to future officers that they should speak up if they feel that there is something wrong with the plan.

I didn't bring any stones :(

Here are some pictures of the same beaches. The large stones play a big role, because they do not support weight very well and you kinda sink into them. We walked down to the waterline and tried running up the beach to the sea wall, and it was very difficult to do - and we didn't have 70lbs of kit on us.

Dieppe_pebble_beach.jpg

Dieppe%20Photo1.jpg

dieppic1.jpg

Bodies_of_Canadian_soldiers_-_Dieppe_Raid.jpg


With those images in my head, this is one place that made me very angry. Visiting the cemetery after hit everyone hard.
 
TheIndifferent1 said:
I didn't bring any stones :(

Here are some pictures of the same beaches. The large stones play a big role, because they do not support weight very well and you kinda sink into them. We walked down to the waterline and tried running up the beach to the sea wall, and it was very difficult to do - and we didn't have 70lbs of kit on us.
Click to expand...

Besides the running part, they were important for other reasons. They would turn a single round of gunfire into a shotgun blast with the pieces. But most importantly from the planning stage, any tanker could tell you that they would throw the tracks off an armored vehicle. You cold not ask for a worse surface to try and drive on. They fill the area between the track and the drive sprocket or the idler wheels until the track rides over the guides and comes off. Mind you it was a moot point anyway. Some of the tanks were dropped in too deep a water and their crews were drowned. Others made it to the beach and had their tracks thrown. They continued to provided fire support and covered the withdrawal. A very few made it to the edge of the beach only to find the anti tank traps would not allow them through. And even if they had made it through, the roads were too narrow to have allowed tanks to pass into the town.


I also found Puy exceptionally moving. I could only imagine the crossfire from the MGs onto that tiny area of beach. Unbelievable that a handful of guys actually made it up that little path.
 
Knew a guy who walked off the Dieppe beach with 8 bullets holes in him. One of which was a compound leg fracture. He didn't know it until the MO on the ship asked him how he got off the beach.
"...a monument just below the cliffs..." The ultimate insult was including Chretien in the Juno Beach Centre opening.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom