D-day landings scenes in 1944 and now – interactive ( 75th anniversary)

[editor]

There's a wonderful selection of Then & Now photos on the Guardian:


D-day landings scenes in 1944 and now – interactive

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

There's a wonderful selection of Then & Now photos on the Guardian:


D-day landings scenes in 1944 and now – interactive

Wow, really brings it to life.

 

[ElizabethofYork]

That's brilliant.

 

[brogdale]

Some fine colourised images here.

 

[mod]

Love it.

 

[Wookey]

Jawdrop.

 

[Badgers]

Great pics

 

[ricbake]

The work that has gone into finding these locations and matching the original pictures is phenomenal!

 

[dessiato]

There's a wonderful selection of Then & Now photos on the Guardian:


D-day landings scenes in 1944 and now – interactive

I've been to many of those sites. Seeing them like this though puts a different spin on it all.

 

[Smangus]

Been listening to the radio coverage of this in the last few days , some of the stories are amazing.

 

[Poi E]

Some fine colourised images here.

Excellent summary, too.

 

[weltweit]

Good pictures.

Lots of great stories around this.

Earlier today I was reading about the mulberry harbours, two were built but only one survived to be used on the day, but they were essential in landing the thousands of vehicles and troops to continue the offensive. They were put forward as one of the engineering marvels of the time.

 

[mauvais]

Nothing quite compares to going to the beaches and seeing for yourself the exposure and distances that had to be covered. The best word I can think of for it is 'humbling' but that's not right either.

 

[weltweit]

I read about some soldiers who were let off their landing craft in much too deep water, and weighed down with all their kit they just drowned as soon as they left the craft. Pretty awful.

 

[likesfish]

If you were really tired of the life you could arrive in Normandy by GLIDER!
because nothing says a good idea like arriving to battle in a 4-ton canvas aircraft with no engine at night with no night vision no armor and no runway

 

[ferrelhadley]

At its peak nearly 2 million men fighting over a couple of hundred square kilometres (100 square kilometres is only a box of 10 by 10 kilometres), two entire army groups smashing into each other in an area much smaller than that enclosed by the M25.
The battlefield was intensely claustrophobic with only a few dozen metres between thick hedgerows. Each one fought over to be wrested by blood and exhaustion.
One of the greatest logistics efforts in history.
Three months of attrition to smash Army Group B and open the road to the German border.
The density of fighting was unimaginable.

 

[weltweit]

Biggest military operation in history.

 

[weltweit]

I don't think I have met a veteran of the D day landings, all my dads colleagues were coming up from Italy having been in North Africa.

 

[weltweit]

Some fine colourised images here.

Good pictures

 

[treelover]

Good Doc on the main Overlord campaign on BBC 4

 

[weltweit]

No one has mentioned, perhaps because it is obvious, but this 75th year anniversary of D day will be the last like this, with actual veterans from the invasion, because they are all in their 90s now.

I found it moving that a couple of parachute veterans jumped yesterday over Normandy, gutsy people!

 

[weltweit]

editor could you change the title of this thread, just a little, to include that it is the 75th anniversary of D day, because I think a few people haven't seen the news about the commemorations and think this is just a thread on its own somehow.