65 years of the Allied landing in Normandy

I went on a business trip last year in Paris and could not use the chance to go there, where it all happened. By purchasing a tour through the internet, I went for a day in Normandy ...

The first place of our tour was a rocky ledge Pointe du Hoc, which in 1944 was placed a distant artillery battery Germans. American soldiers had to destroy it to its nebyli thwarted landing in the sectors of Utah and Omaha (Saving Private Ryan). Before landing operation was a massive bombardment of the place.

(103 photos)

One of the many craters

One of the bunkers, which were installed in gun

Spaced apart hopper

Damaged aircraft bomb bunker

The same bunker in 1944

And it is he in the game Call of Duty 2

View from inside the bunker over the sea

View back from it

The system of underground bunkers for shelter around guns

The view from inside the hole for the machine gun bunker on the staircase entrance

The same, but in the game Call of Duty 2

Outside, at the entrance to one of the bins

The same is true for Call of Duty 2

View of the place with a bird's-eye view

One of the air raids on the battery

This is the only place in France where it was decided to leave the area the way it was after the war.

The Allies bombed and shelled by artillery Marine Germans a few days before planting, but most Germans survived thanks to an underground bunker and given a hard fight back when landing.

View of a German observation post from which to view all the sea

He's in the game Call of Duty 2

The famous cliff Pointe du Hoc

In 1944 after the battle. Rock can be seen at the top right ...

Sea view from the German fortifications

Americans podplyvaya, was fired from his boat on the rocks with hooks attached to them a rope ladder (the frame of the game Call of Duty)

Start of the assault (the frame of the game Call of Duty)

Sturm. Americans shot from above like partridges. The command did not expect that the Germans will be able to adequately defend themselves after a massive air and artillery fire (the frame of the game Call of Duty)

Landing. View towards the cliff Pointe du Hoc (frame of the game Call of Duty)

View from the sea. Here on the rocks, under heavy fire from scrambled Americans.

I found on the Internet drawings on the theme of assault

The second figure

1944 After the storm. Here on such stairs they climbed the cliff and into battle.

Then drove to several places with different monuments, looked at the place where was built by the Americans port for receiving equipment and weapons from ships, we looked into the largest museum on the theme of World War II and was visited by another cannon battery with the surviving guns ...

On the way to Saint-Mer Eglise

The castle, where he lived Churchill, when France was already released

Mainly in Normandy virtually no churches with bell towers of the original buildings, as Americans have destroyed the high buildings as soon as they found out of fear of snipers. This is one of the survivors, and the rest were restored.

So-called bocage (narrow stretches of woods between flat fields), which slows down the Allied offensive. This is an ideal defensive terrain paired with an excellent opportunity to organize the ambush, which was used by the Germans against the Allies.

The central square with the church of Saint-Mer Eglise. The first town liberated allies.

Dummy paratrooper in the bell tower of the church - a local landmark ...

Paratrooper John Steele when his parachute caught on the landing of the bell tower
church and hung so a few hours until the battle for the city. He was shot by the Germans and taken prisoner, but was later released.