Discussion
I'm now looking to see if you can gain access to the fort on the Maginot Line because that place looked amazing!
I've been to many of these places over the past years and have never failed to be moved by the enormity of what these folks did for us! You can visit the Maginot Line fort at the Fortress du Hackenburg very near to the Fench town of Thionville, just contact them to make sure that it's open as it's staffed by volunteers. A quick drive along from there gets you into the Moselle Valley and up to Bastogne!
If you want a place to really make you stop and think then try the Menin Gate Ceremony at 20.00 every evening in Ypres, or just up the road to Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Grave cemetery, close on 100,000 lives commemorated between the two memorials!!
Everyone should do some of these visits at some point during their life. If anyone would like any advice on places to go and things to see I'd be happy to help. (Edited to add that I've not been everywhere in Europe yet but I hope to!)
I've been to many of these places over the past years and have never failed to be moved by the enormity of what these folks did for us! You can visit the Maginot Line fort at the Fortress du Hackenburg very near to the Fench town of Thionville, just contact them to make sure that it's open as it's staffed by volunteers. A quick drive along from there gets you into the Moselle Valley and up to Bastogne!
If you want a place to really make you stop and think then try the Menin Gate Ceremony at 20.00 every evening in Ypres, or just up the road to Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Grave cemetery, close on 100,000 lives commemorated between the two memorials!!
Everyone should do some of these visits at some point during their life. If anyone would like any advice on places to go and things to see I'd be happy to help. (Edited to add that I've not been everywhere in Europe yet but I hope to!)
Eric Mc said:
Simpo Two said:
I wasn't sure why they were digging up a road in the middle of a town when there must be many more accessible wrecks in the countryside.
I think it was the first Luftwaffe aircraft downed by the RAF over France so was considered a significant event. I think the discovery of the water main called a halt to proceedings so the Stuka dig was carried out instead.
That is actually a very good point to make
The beach at Omaha is absolutely marvellous, kids would love it
I paddled in the surf there to take a "coming ashore" picture by the monument (temporarily lost until I can get all my old pictures back from a knackered hard drive)
Normandy... no, anywhere in France is well worth a "War Minded" visit
And also worth a Le Mans minded one too
The beach at Omaha is absolutely marvellous, kids would love it
I paddled in the surf there to take a "coming ashore" picture by the monument (temporarily lost until I can get all my old pictures back from a knackered hard drive)
Normandy... no, anywhere in France is well worth a "War Minded" visit
And also worth a Le Mans minded one too
CatherineJ said:
I missed it tonight.
Told this storyhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11951642
Plus the recovery of John Cock's Hurricane from Chesil Beach
Munter said:
Simpo Two said:
So even the Americans have succumbed to Napoleon's measuring system. Merde.
And all the fault of the British OS maps?
I'm going to speculate that it's because NATO was geared up to fight in Western Europe. So everybody else and all their equipment would be metric. So best to train all NATO troops in metric for compatibility reasons.And all the fault of the British OS maps?
Just my speculation.
Klick is a common military term meaning kilometer.[1] Its use became popular among US soldiers during the Vietnam War during the 1960s and 1970s, although veterans of the war recall its usage as early as the 1950s. *The origin is from the sound military vehicle odometers made as they turned over each kilometer. Some also believe it to be an example of condensed pronunciation or contraction of the term kilometer.
- must be a feckin loud "klick"
Retired colleague goes regularly with a metal detector,recently they found a dog tag and remains. the french farmer who's land they were on says it 's not the first body found on his land.Six months later a letter to the farmer from a french dept who deal full time with this sort of thing says the body was that of a WW1 soldier from Australia.
I also read that 2million acres of land still has mines and other unexploded bombs,there is a full time force of around 200 bomb disposal experts employed fulltime.
I also read that 2million acres of land still has mines and other unexploded bombs,there is a full time force of around 200 bomb disposal experts employed fulltime.
W124Bob said:
Six months later a letter to the farmer from a french dept who deal full time with this sort of thing says the body was that of a WW1 soldier from Australia.
I think Australia is unusual in having all its WW1 records intact. (But then the Luftwaffe couldn't fly that far in WW2!)W124Bob said:
Retired colleague goes regularly with a metal detector,recently they found a dog tag and remains. the french farmer who's land they were on says it 's not the first body found on his land.Six months later a letter to the farmer from a french dept who deal full time with this sort of thing says the body was that of a WW1 soldier from Australia.
I also read that 2million acres of land still has mines and other unexploded bombs,there is a full time force of around 200 bomb disposal experts employed fulltime.
Unexploded ordnance is so common in that area, that when the farmers find something they just put it with the rest at the side of the field, and the bomb disposal guys come and collect it once a week.I also read that 2million acres of land still has mines and other unexploded bombs,there is a full time force of around 200 bomb disposal experts employed fulltime.
http://www.greatwar.nl/frames/default-houthulste.h...
Eric Mc said:
I was impressed with the surviving ruin of the bombed out cinema in Hull.
Yes that struck me as well, I think it would be a good thing to preserve it (as it stands) and open it as some sort of memorial as that area (well Yorkshire as a whole) did play a large part during the war Gassing Station | Boats, Planes & Trains | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff