Normandy trip – day 2 – Pointe du Hoc

Next stop on day two was Pointe du Hoc, sort of between Utah and Omaha beaches. It’s a steep cliff where the Germans were supposed to have an artillery battery. They had had a battery of six 155 mm guns there, in open topped emplacements, but these were bombed earlier and the Germans started building covered bunkers and removed the guns to avoid losses. This was unknown by the allies, and they planned heavy bombardment and an attack by US Rangers. The latter were supposed to embark, scale the cliffs and attack. Everything went downhill from the beginning. 2/3 of the Rangers didn’t show up, the grappling hooks didn’t get all the way up… Anyway the Rangers did what Rangers are supposed to do; they scaled the cliffs, attacked the troops present, secured the area, survived counterattacks and were cut off for far too long. Read more on Wikipedia.

A dramatic view of Pointe du Hoc in the distance. The weather was something like it was that day 69 years ago.

The top off the cliff was heavily bombarded, and the craters are still there but covered with grass. It must have been hell up there…

One of the emplacements

View towards the monument

One of the gun-bunkers under construction

Splendid view from the observation and machine gun bunker just by the cliff side. The monument is on top of this bunker

The monument, a granite dagger

A steep drop

The way this site is preserved makes it rather unique, and it is a must if you ever make a battlefield tour in these parts. Very good!

Even more of day two to come soon…

Rest of the trip:

Part 1 – Day 1

Part 2 – Day 2 - The beaches

Part 4 – Day 2 – Port-en-Bessin and Memorial

Part 5 – Day 2 – Longues and Arromanches

Part 6 – Day 3 - Merville

Part 7 – Day 3 – Pegasus Bridge
Part 8 - Extra - Bunker Museum in Oustreham

Part 9 – Day 4 - Bocage

Part 10 – Day 4 – Bayeux and Radar Museum

Part 11 – Day 5 – Falaise Gap

Normandy trip – day 2 – the beaches

Day two started with a short visit at Sainte-Mère-Église, where American paras dropped on top of German troops.

A poor para still hangs from the church tower. His real counterpart got stuck there, and survived by pretending to be dead, while a battle raged around him.

A well preserved Sherman outside the local museum. We didn’t have time to visit this one unfortunately.

An American gun. Don’t know which type, but it is obviously an AA. 3 inch? I saw the same type on several other places.

The French resistance visits

After that we went to the beach. Utah beach to be more precise.

Can’t go many meters without stumbling over a Sherman.

First view of the sea. Our guide leads the way.

More beach, not much cover for attacker or defender.

One of the bunkers. This one was armed with a gun giving flanking fire.

Next stop was a museum by the beach, missed the name of this one. Very nice, and well worth a visit.

A German wicker case for spent cartridges. I guess they had other things than recycling on their minds that day.

German camo

A saddle from horse drawn artillery. Good inspiration for the horses from the Revell artillery set I built before.

A tracked landing craft

A B-26. Fantastic.

A heavy truck, 2 ½ ton I think.

Landing craft

.50 cal

Beach defence, with a 75mm PAK

and an emplaced tank turret way past its best before date

A DUKW. Cool. I rode in one 35 years ago on Jersey, and took some crappy photos of the details with my then very crappy camera.  I’ve been irritated about that since then. Nice to see one again… and take more close ups. Better result this time.

This guy understands how to use a gun barrel.

Day two to be continued…

Rest of the trip:

Part 1 – Day 1

Part 3 – Day 2 – Pointe du Hoc

Part 4 – Day 2 – Port-en-Bessin and Memorial

Part 5 – Day 2 – Longues and Arromanches
Part 6 – Day 3 - Merville

Part 7 – Day 3 – Pegasus Bridge
Part 8 - Extra - Bunker Museum in Oustreham

Part 9 – Day 4 - Bocage

Part 10 – Day 4 – Bayeux and Radar Museum

Part 11 – Day 5 – Falaise Gap

Normandy trip – day 1

As a birthday present to myself I got a 5-day battlefield tour of Normandy, specifically Overlord and beyond. A long-time dream come true.

The trip was a cooperation between SMB and Favoritresor.

It started early, the plane left Arlanda Airport at 06.30 on June 8^th. I went solo, but met the first two members of the trip on the plane. My neighbour read a book on Overlord, sort of a dead give-away. Nice chap (Hi there, Jan).

Our guide, Peter Hagwall, managed to catch us all, 35 enthusiasts, at Charles de Gaulle airport, where a bus was waiting.

As it turned out, Jan and I got to sit next to each other on the bus, too. Lunches with cider/wine/beer followed...

From Paris we travelled through the Seine valley towards our goal, Ouistreham, which was to be our base of operations. Ouistreham is at the very west end of Sword Beach.

The first real WWII-stop was Rommel’s HQ at Cháteau de La Roche Guyon, an impressive castle in the shadow of a steep cliff and nice caves to hide in. 

As with all photos: click on them to get a larger one.

Rouen, and lunch-break.

At Ouistreham I found these just outside the hotel. This close to the anniversary there was lots of re-enactors around. We passed several more Jeeps, trucks and even half-tracks during the next few days.

More pics of the jeeps and Dodge ¾ ton truck (I think it is):

I’ve got a bunch of photos of details, so if you’re interested I could publish more. Just state your preferences in the comments below.

That was the first day.

To be continued.

Rest of the trip:

Part 2 – Day 2 - The beaches

Part 3 – Day 2 – Pointe du Hoc

Part 4 – Day 2 – Port-en-Bessin and Memorial

Part 5 – Day 2 – Longues and Arromanches

Part 6 – Day 3 - Merville

Part 7 – Day 3 – Pegasus Bridge
Part 8 - Extra - Bunker Museum in Oustreham

Part 9 – Day 4 - Bocage

Part 10 – Day 4 – Bayeux and Radar Museum

Part 11 – Day 5 – Falaise Gap

Newton, custodian of all things lost and shiny, from Hasslefree

I think he was an extra x-mas figure I got with an order ages ago. Anyway, it’s from one of my favourite companies, Hasslefree. He’s a really cute little guy, and very easy to paint. Full off character, but tiny - he’s on a 20 mm base. I don’t know why he’s been unpainted for so long.

Paints used:

Skin – Citadel Foundation Tallarn Flesh

Shirt – Vallejo 886 Green Grey

Shoes – Vallejo 983 Flat Earth

Sack – Coat d’arms 240 Unbleached Wool

and a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone ink

That was easy!

Fiama – a 32mm female cleric from Enigma

 

Fiama, from Enigma Miniatures, is a 32 mm figure, that is, a bit larger than your standard 28mm figures. She would work as a tall human, though.

I will probably use her as a cleric, as she is armed with a mace.

A fantastic figure, very finely detailed and a pleasure to paint. But a bit of a challenge with all the fine details.

Paints used (Vallejo unless otherwise noted)

Metal armour – Citadel Chainmail

Body Armour – 876 Brown Sand

Leather armour and shoes – Formula P3 Bootstrap Leather

Leggings – 821 German Camo Beige

Grip of the mace and inside of shield – 843 Cork Brown

Everything above washed with Army Painter Strong Tone ink

Hair – 940 Saddle Brown, washed with Strong Tone ink and drybrushed with 818 Red Leather

Cloth – Citadel Scab Red with creases painted with Army Painter Dark Tone ink

Shield – Chainmail washed with Citadel Dark Green Ink

Jewelry – Citadel Dwarf Bronze washed with Army painter Soft Tone ink