Trip to Normandy - part 2

As promised another photo dump from my Normandy trip. First up is the Commonwealth War graves. I have to admit I was in awe of this memorial. All those columns with lists of men who lost their lives in the Normandy command. Makes you realise how grateful we are to their sacrifice. I did manage to get a photo of the silhouettes they are putting in place for the 80th anniversary.

After our visit here we then made our way to the Overlord museum which is not far from the Omaha beach. Wish we had had the time to make it across. This museum had loads on show, but it was very dark making taking decent photos difficult.

On our last day we had a slight change from D-Day battles and made our way over to the town of Dieppe. This was the location of the failed landings by predominantly Canadian troops in 1942. You can see by the pebble beach that both tanks and infantry would struggle to get across. The promenade has a number of commemorative plaques to the different units that landed there. 

After our tour of the town we stopped off for some refreshments in the Le Cambridge pub. Quite a nice pint after a long day. My brother is now planning a trio for next year back in Normandy, hopefully a little closer to the beaches this time.

Trip to Normandy - part 1

Just got back from a week in Normandy. The 14 hours travelling is rather exhausting. While there I took the opportunity to visit a number of the D-Day sites. Something I've always wanted to do. We'll probably be back next year to cover the American sector as they were just a bit far to travel to each day. So in no particular order a bit of a photo dump.

Pegasus bridge, including the first house liberated in France, Cafe Gondree by elements of 6th Airborne division.

Next was the Merville battery, captured by 9th Parachute battalion under Colonel Otway.

Next is the Longues sur mer battery, situated between Omaha and Gold beaches was eventually captured by the Devonshires after it had been heavily bombarded by the Navy and Airforce. This was a great place to visit and free. 

Superb view to Gold beach

I'll try and get the rest of the photos added tomorrow of the Overlord museum, Commonwealth war graves monument and then to Dieppe.

DAK Transport

In the Desert war mobility is the  key. So my infantry will need plenty of transports to keep up with the Panzers. 

So the first batch is 5 Opel Blitz trucks, will need some more of these. The 2 on the left were printed by Mitch, the other 3 are from Paint and Glue.

Next up is 3 Hanomags. 2 of these had a miscast front wheel and the models were not as well defined. Mitch was going to throw them away. I persuaded him not to, used a bit of modelling pitty to create a dodgy wheel. They'll be fine on the tabletop.

Lastly is a couple of Kubelwagons and Steyr heavy cars. These were printed by Mitch with the exception of the Kubelwagon in the centre which is from Paint and Glue.

And here they are all together. Will definitely need some more as well as plenty of tractors for pulling the AT guns.

I'm getting down to the last few models and figures to complete before needing more. Shame I've run out of undercoat to get the last 3 Panzer IIIs done.