Visit to Omaha Beach, the Normandy American Cemetery and Pointe du Hoc.

[KokomoDave]

"The Kiss" statue is outside the entrance to Lido Key in Florida. Not sure if it was the same one in France or not but...

 

[Jag3212323]

The aerial photos are crazy. Great for perspective. Did you stay in Bayeux? It was a great little town and the only one that wasn’t destroyed. It was saved because the Germans fled, so it didn’t see large scale (or maybe any) fighting.


QUOTE=Sylvain;7541991]

I think that's it for the most interesting pictures of Omaha Beach, next stop will be Pointe du Hoc.

The whole area was heavily bombed, it's amazing that some bunkers are still standing.

Those bombs craters are huge, you really realize their size when you're next to them in person.
For scale you can see cars and buses on the top left corner of the picture.[/QUOTE]




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[rhinoabe]

Thank you

Sylvain. I love your history lessons even though they bring tears to my eyes.​

 

[Sylvain]

The aerial photos are crazy. Great for perspective. Did you stay in Bayeux? It was a great little town and the only one that wasn’t destroyed. It was saved because the Germans fled, so it didn’t see large scale (or maybe any) fighting.

I live in Normandy, not in Bayeux though.

 

[Sylvain]

Sylvain, the Reagan bunker pic of him and Nancy and then your modern pic is one of the coolest damn things I've ever seen man.

I just randomly found that pictures and noticed afterward that the broken concrete making arches above their faces was matching perfectly with the one from my picture.

I've taken other pictures where I later from one from WW2 taken exactly from where I was standing, in the same direction.

On one of those pictures you can see the beach covered with bodies, right next to where I was standing to take my picture.

 

[Sylvain]

I got to cross Pegasus Bridge today.

 

[Sylvain]

That's a replica of the bridge (picture above) built shortly after the war, made wider than the original one.

The actual bridge that was captured by British paratroopers during WW2 is kept nearby at a museum.

You can see one of the gliders used on June 5th, and 6th by Allied troopers.

The Germans flooded a lot of the areas around the D-Deaches to make it impossible (or more difficult) to land planes in fields.

 

[Sylvain]

A tank at the Pegasus Bridge Memorial.

Another one turned into a memorial in the same town ....

 

[Sylvain]

A German casemate at Juno Beach.

The anti tank gun was able to fire at tanks landing on the beach.
It's also in line to fire directly at any armored vehicle crossing the main street.

It wasn't able to fire directly towards the sea, therefore also making it impossible to destroy from a ship.
As you can see the wall facing the beach if very thick.

The Germans fired 70 anti tank shells from that casemate during the landing on Juno Beach.

Three tanks finally managed to make it to the beach and destroyed that position.

View from the beach ...

 

[Sylvain]

The same casemate during D-Day shortly after the landing.

Picture taken from that casemate the same day.
You can see the tank that neutralized the casemate, its gun still pointing towards the casemate.

 

[actaeon277]

"Not pointing towards the beach" doesn't keep it from destroyed by ship. It only makes it more difficult. Near misses will not be putting shrapnel into it.
Pretty sure a direct hit would destroy it.

 

[Leadeye]

Interesting picture with the P-47 crashed on the beach, and good shots of the Cromwell tank. I do like the "then and now" compositions.

 

[Sylvain]

"Not pointing towards the beach" doesn't keep it from destroyed by ship. It only makes it more difficult. Near misses will not be putting shrapnel into it.
Pretty sure a direct hit would destroy it.

You're the Navy expert.
That's a really thick wall but I have no idea what it would take to destroy it.
It was protected from the landing tanks and similar size guns from most angles anyway.

It was also well camouflaged like you can see in one of the pictures.Probably not visible from the ships.

 

[Sylvain]

The Pegasus Bridge Café.
They claim to have been the first house in France to have been liberated during the war.

During D-Day the owner of the café turned his restaurant into a first aid station to help the wounded Allied soldiers.

 

[actaeon277]

You're the Navy expert.
That's a really thick wall but I have no idea what it would take to destroy it.
It was protected from the landing tanks and similar size guns from most angles anyway.

It was also well camouflaged like you can see in one of the pictures.Probably not visible from the ships.

You've heard of airplanes dropping munitions and being guided by someone on the ground? Telling the next airplane to hit 50 yards north, stuff like that?
Well, ships do the same thing. There are people that direct naval gunfire and in communications with the ship.

As for penetration..
Okun Resource - World War II Naval Gun Armor Penetration Tables - NavWeaps
This describes the abbreviations used in the charts

Okun Resource - World War II Naval Gun Armor Penetration Tables - United States - NavWeaps
This is a chart of penetration

Granted, these charts aren't for concrete.

But, it looks like a small gun, from 2 km or less can penetrate 4 (I don't see what the unit is. centimeter, millimeter, or inch)

 

[Dead Duck]

Navel Penetration Tables

Oh the possibilities.

 

[Sylvain]

Navel Penetration Tables

Oh the possibilities.

Probably in inches then?

 

[actaeon277]

Probably in inches then?

They have range in km. So, maybe not.

 

[actaeon277]

I don't know where these are from

 

[actaeon277]