Tag Archives: World War II

MEMORIAL TO LEADERSHIP FAILURE

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This memorial is located at the cave where Colonel Kunio Nakagawa, leader of the Japanese troops on Peleliu Island, committed suicide during World War II. He led his men to certain death. 12,000 Japanese troops fought a battle with no hope of winning, dying instead of surrendering honorably.

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To me it was a memorial to the differences in cultures, because I do not understand his leadership or see suicide as honorable. Under his leadership they mutilated Americans that they captured in direct contradiction to the Geneva Convention and justified all actions, regardless of how inhumane they were, as acceptable due to divine right.

The memorial seemed an affront to peace, sensibility, and to the terrible fate of those poor, common Japanese soldiers who were given no options but death.

LOOKING DOWN THE BARREL OF A 200MM GUN, PELELIU

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Or specifically, the barrel of a Japanese 200mm cannon on Peleliu. The World War II cannon was dug into the rocks and virtually unreachable with sniper holes guarding the entrance. The problem? As it was so deeply dug into the rocks it had a very limited field of view and effectiveness.

The Americans snuck up the side to take it out.

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The artillery and mortar caves of the Japanese were well thought out. Many had steel doors on them, which would close during US naval or artillery bombardment – popping open the moment the shelling stopped. This was a big gun.

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It was very well dug in. Too well in fact.

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The sniper holes are under the moss.

AROUND PELELIU

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A few random shots from our travels around the island.

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This bridge was bombed by the Americans during WWII. The remnants reminded me of a Tori gate. I am sure there is some form of irony there.

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An old concrete machine gun bunker.

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The old Japanese communications building. You are not allowed in, as the back collapsed during a hurricane in 2012.

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The memorial to the US 81st Infantry. It was a cemetery but years ago Congress went around the world and brought their war dead back to the US.

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The old runway that was so precious to McArthur. If you watch The Pacific (HBO) they show how this area was an open field with all vegetation bombed and burned to the ground. Nature has reclaimed the airfield.

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A plaque on a memorial from the Japanese people.

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I would agree and let us all hope and pray for those around the world who are suffering through war today.

PALAU ABANDONED JAPANESE WAR MONUMENT

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We had rented a car and were driving the roads of Palau in search of a waterfall. Along the side of the road we noticed a concrete pyramid rising out of the jungle. What was that?

We backtracked and found the entrance with a set of tire tracks through the grass, no “official” road in sight and everything overgrown. What was it?

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As we moved closer, we started to notice the writing on the walls – definitely Japanese. But so overgrown … so un-Japanese.

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On the left were names of companies. All of the companies you would easily recognize; JAL, Toshiba, Panasonic and others.

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On the right are the names of people. I assume people who have donated.

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One of the first names is very interesting … Ryoichi Sasakawa who has a very interesting and mixed history.

Ryoichi Sasakawa (笹川 良一 Sasakawa Ryōichi?, May 4, 1899 – July 18, 1995) was a Japanese businessman, politician and fascist[1][2][3] born in Minoh,Osaka. He was imprisoned as a Class A war criminal after World War II but later released without a trial,[4][5][6] kuromaku (political power-broker), and the founder of the Nippon Foundation. While he is widely known throughout Africa and much of the developing world for the wide-ranging philanthropic programs that he established, he is at the same time viewed with hostility by many intellectuals[7][8] for his right wing ideals and ties to Japan’s motorboat racing industry and support for the Unification Movement

I found his quote “I am the world’s richest fascist” particularly interesting when he is also recognized for leading significant charity efforts in poverty stricken nations and a peace organization that bears his name.

The black marble triangle with the dirt darkened inscription and long dead wreaths reads (roughly translated)

As a memory of fighting in this war we built this to take care of the spirits of the soldiers.

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To Japan …

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A place to sit and contemplate.

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You can find the monument at Longitude 7 27 51.71, Latitude 134 31 40.878 (embedded in the metadata). How quickly nature creeps back …

PELELIU, BLOODY NOSE RIDGE

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Our first stop on our exploration of the island of Peleliu was bloody nose ridge. Along the road was a small sign about a few Japanese men who held out well after the war.

On 21 April 1947, a small band of Japanese holdouts was discovered on Peleliu. They formally surrendered only after considerable effort to convince them the war was over. Lieutenant Yamaguchi, who had maintained military discipline in the group for the intervening years, led 26 soldiers to a position in front of 80 battle-dressed Marines where he turned over his sword.

You can read more about the account here. (Config: Canon 5D Mark III, Canon 28-70mm f/2.8)

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Their cave is 50m that way.

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The fighting in Peleliu was inhuman. It was not a strategic battle with cleaver maneuvers and tightly managed strategies. With 22,000 combatants surrounded by hundreds of ships and planes on a 2 mile by 6 mile island, it was a meat grinder – a battle of brute force. While the US Army wanted to execute a conservative strategy to beat the Japanese after extensive bombing/artillery, inching their sandbags forward; the controversial leader of the US Marines Colonel Chesty Puller had one strategy, drive ahead at all costs. That cost was divisions going in with 280 men and walking out with 70 left days later. Many say that Marine Corps. casualties did not need to be so high.

It was fought hand to hand and due to the Japanese Imperial Army’s mentality of too the death for the Emperor, it lead to some of the highest casualty rates in American history and almost no Japanese prisoners. I read With The Old Breed before flying over, and while I found the writing of the book rather simplistic, he describes the rawness of Peleliu very clearly:

to those who entered the meat grinder itself, the war was a nether world of horror [in which] time had no meaning; life had no meaning. The fierce struggle for survival in the abyss of Peleliu eroded the veneer of civilization and made savages of us all. We existed in an environment totally incomprehensible to men behind the lines — service troops and civilians.

In addition to rotting corpses and organic waste, the litter of smashed and worn out equipment of every type became more abundant as the battle dragged on and the size of the Umurbrogol Pocket shrank slowly. The ridges and ravines were littered with the flotsam of fierce combat. Debris of battle was everywhere and became more noticeable as the weeks dragged on.

That debris is everywhere. In fact, it is still quite dangerous in the jungle as they are still clearing it out.

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Along the trail, you see remnants of the war scattered everywhere (including the occasional human bone).

Old mortar rounds were everywhere.

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As were caves. The Japanese adopted a new strategy at Peleliu after their many previous failures and learning that the banzai charge was not a successful strategy. They adopted a defense in depth strategy with extensive tunnels. This meant that they would hide until the American shelling let up and then pop up and surprise the US troops. This approach created the most vicious of battles, with the Americans having to root the soldiers out one by one using some of the most terrible of weapons (such as the flame thrower). According to one source, the US military expended 1,500 rounds of ammunition for every Japanese death (All but 280 of the 12,000 Japanese soldiers were killed).

A cave filled with anti-aircraft cartridges.

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A plaque and memorial to Elmer Lowe, Sgt USMC who died on this ridge. Over 2,000 marines were killed or wounded in this tight battle with the Japanese (8,500 Americans were killed or wounded in Peleliu – a battle that was supposed to be over in 3 days).

Another quote from The Old Breed that seem particularly apt at a place like this:

War is such self-defeating, organized madness the way it destroys a nations best. I wondered also about the hopes and aspirations of a dead

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The infamous water barrels of the Peleliu battle. Soldiers had been assigned to steam clean 55 gallon oil drums, which the military would repurpose for drinking water. The problem is that the job was not well done or inspected. The fresh water that arrived for the troops was full of rust and oil. In the 120F heat, many tried to drink it anyway and became violently ill.

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Shells and guns lay strewn along the walk.

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From The Old Breed:

None of us would ever be the same after what we had endured. To some degree that is true, of course, of all human experience. But something in me died at Peleliu. Perhaps it was a childish innocence that accepted as faith the claim that man is basically good. Possibly I lost faith that politicians in high places who do not have to endure wars savagery will ever stop blundering and sending others to endure it.

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PELELIU, A TRIP TO A HORRIFIC PAST (Part 1)

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One of the targets for the Palau trip was a tour of Peleliu. I have read a lot of World War II history, more documentaries than I can count and throughout my life have been fascinated with WWII. I also enjoy touring the more remote historical locations, where the antiseptic aura of the well kept museum is not present.

Peleliu is one of those place. We booked a boat tour with Sam’s Tours and headed out early in the morning. I was hopeful, the weather looked good.

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It was an hour ride with a single rough spot where rain threatened, but as we approached the island, the sky was clear. As we scooted along I noticed a large object on the reef. I didn’t have time to swap to my 70-200mm and we did not have time to swing out there, so here is the poor shot of a Japanese concrete “ship” resting on the reef. The Japanese built it with the hopes of drawing American ships close to the reef. To me it seems like one of those ideas where a bunch of officers are sitting around brainstorming .. one of those “no idea is too stupid” type of sessions. Only in this case, they obviously missed the joke.

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Our engines started to sputter, and the captain stopped to have a look which gave me a calm moment to take this shot. Two observations from our guide:

The reason why the Japanese picked Peleliu is because it is the only flat island in the area.

If you look carefully you can see a few floating bottles … floating from Indonesia was the explanation (with a trace of animosity clearly present)

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A closer shot. The Americans thought the island looked flat too (they were wrong).

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As we approached the dock, we passed fisherman wading near the reef.

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This is a small island with roughly 500 locals. The kind of place where everyone knows everyone.

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We disembarked, ready to learn the island’s dark history.

IMPRESSIONS OF PALAU

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I have had Palau on my bucket list for a long time for two reasons; Jellyfish Lake in the Rock Islands and Peleliu, the island the US/Japan fought a vicious WWII battle.

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For those of you who do not know Palau;

Palau (Listeni/pəˈlaʊ/, sometimes spelled Belau or Pelew), officially the Republic of Palau (Palauan: Beluu er a Belau),[4] is an island country located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is geographically part of the larger island group of Micronesia. The country’s population of around 21,000 is spread across 250 islands forming the western chain of the Caroline Islands. The most populous island is Koror. The islands share maritime boundaries with Indonesia, Philippines and theFederated States of Micronesia. The capital Ngerulmud is located in Melekeok State on the nearby island of Babeldaob.

It is a breathtakingly beautiful set of islands, with the friendliest of people and an interesting history. First colonized by the Spanish, then sold to the Germans, occupied by the Japanese in 1914 and now supported by the US as a United Nations protected territory, Palau has seen its share of foreigners.

Like many islands, the buildings are crumbling with the people surviving on a mix of subsistence farming/fishing, tourism and international aid which allows the government to employee roughly half of the population. The US is at the forefront of that aid, providing a $250M package in 2010 and remains in a tight military compact with the island (although the only US forces in Palau are there to support civil projects such as school and road construction).

The reason why so few have heard about it is due to the location and a coastline of mangrove swamps that do not allow the country to compete with the beaches of Hawaii or Tahiti. The airlines don’t help either, our flight from Tokyo was one of the only directs and the return flight left the island at 4:20am (less than ideal). But a bucket list is a bucket list …. and so we went. Glad we did, it is a truly unique place.

When you get there, the island culture starts to seep into you. It is a beautiful island and despite a week of way too much rain, we had a few great adventures .. which will kick off a few posts.

All of that being said, the view from our hotel, the PPR, was fantastic.

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The problem with traveling to Asia in the summer? It is the wet season. It was very wet … all week unfortunately.

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View from the hilltop.

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Beautiful place. Maybe we need to sell everything in a decade and go live near a beach …. there are definitely worse things in life.

IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM: DUXFORD

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I was sorting through old photos of trips and found the photos from our trip to the Imperial War Museum in Duxford. The Imperial War Museum in London is one of my favourite museums in the world, and it would seem that they simply had so much stuff .. and some of it very big, that they needed to build another on huge grounds with MASSIVE hangers. Not quite true, but it seems that way. It is a massive museum dedicated (not exclusively) to the air:

Imperial War Museum Duxford (commonly referred to simply as "Duxford") is a branch of the Imperial War Museum near the village of Duxford in Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom. Britain’s largest aviation museum,[2] Duxford houses the museum’s large exhibits, including nearly 200 aircraft, military vehicles, artillery and minor naval vessels in seven main exhibitions buildings.[3] The site also provides storage space for the museum’s other collections of material such as film, photographs, documents, books and artefacts. The site accommodates a number of British Army regimental museums, including those of the Parachute Regiment (named Airborne Assault) and the Royal Anglican Regiment.

Based on the historic Duxford Aerodrome, the site was originally operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the First World War. During the Second World War Duxford played a prominent role during the Battle of Britain and was later used by United States Army Air Forces fighter units in support of the daylight bombing of Germany. Duxford remained an active RAF airfield until 1961. After the Ministry of Defence declared the site surplus to requirements in 1969 the Imperial War Museum received permission to use part of the site for storage. The entirety of the site was transferred to the museum in February 1976.

We spent hours meandering around the grounds. A few photos follow. Our first encounter, a massive ground to air rocket:

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There were lots of captured German planes like this Messerschmitt. Note the way the propeller is bent from the crash.

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How often do you get to stand below a German rocket? In this case a V-1.

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The tail of a German fighter found in a field by a farmer. It was shot to bits.

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One of the buildings is huge with planes hanging from the roof and jammed in every corner. Bi-planes ….

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Bombers, fighters … a monster A-10.

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And a huge SR-71.

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You then walk over to another building and it is stuffed full of WWII vehicles. That VW is one of the first WWII models I ever built as a kid.

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A tried and true Sherman.

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So many things to look at, filling every nook and cranny. English museums are like nothing else in the world. And then they started the world famous air show …

NORMANDY DAY 3: SWORD BEACH

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Upon exiting the Arrommanches 360, you have the option of leaving or travelling down a footpath to Sword beach and the city of Saint-Aubin-a-Mer:

Sword Beach was the codename of one of the five main landing beaches in Operation Neptune, which was the initial assault phase of Operation Overlord (the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944). Stretching 8 km from Ouistreham to Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer it was the farthest east of the landing points and around 15 km from Caen. The initial landings were achieved with low casualties, but the British forces ran into heavily defended areas behind the beachhead. The British landings were the only Allied sectors that faced attack by German Panzer Divisions on 6 June 1944.

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A large element of the D-Day invasions were the harbours. At Dieppe, the Allies learned that attacking a fortified port was very difficult. Therefore, they set about capturing these channel towns with the idea of setting up temporary ports to bring in supplies – Mulberry Harbour:

At a meeting following the Dieppe Raid, Hughes-Hallett declared that if a port could not be captured, then one should be taken across the Channel. This was met with derision at the time, but in a subsequent meeting with Churchill, the Prime Minister declared he had surmised a similar scenario using some Danish Islands and sinking old ships for a bridgehead for an invasion in World War I. The concept of Mulberry Harbours began to take shape when Hughes-Hallett moved to be Naval Chief of Staff to the Overlord planners.

A trial of the three eventual competing designs was set up, with tests of deployment including floating the elements, in Garlieston, Wigtownshire. The designs were by Hugh Iorys Hughes who developed his “Hippo” piers and “Crocodile” bridge units on the Conwy Morfa, using 1000 men to build the trial version; the Hamilton “Swiss Roll” which consisted of a floating roadway; and a system of flexible bridging units supported on floating pontoons designed by Major Allan Beckett RE. The tests revealed various problems (the “Swiss Roll” would only take a maximum of a 7 ton truck in the Atlantic swell). However the final choice of design was determined by a storm during which the “Swiss Roll” was washed away and the “Hippos” were undermined; Beckett’s floating roadway (subsequently codenamed Whale) survived undamaged. Beckett’s design was adopted and manufactured under the management of J. D. Bernal and Brigadier Bruce White, under the orders of Winston Churchill.

The proposed harbours called for many huge caissons of various sorts to build breakwaters and piers and connecting structures to provide the roadways. The caissons were built at a number of locations, mainly existing ship building facilities or large beaches like Conwy Morfa around the British coast. The works were let out to commercial construction firms including Balfour Beatty, Costain, Nuttall, Henry Boot, Sir Robert McAlpine and Peter Lind & Company, who all still operate today, and Cubitts, Holloway Brothers, Mowlem and Taylor Woodrow, who all have since been absorbed into other businesses that are still operating [1]. On completion they were towed across the English Channel by tugs[2] to the Normandy coast at only 4.3 Knots (8 km/h or 5 mph).

Mulberry B was the code name for the beach below us. The remains of the port were everywhere. Unlike at the other beach were there were few remains, here the breakwater remained as did other elements all over the beach. The port was an engineering marvel and much of it remains, in full view …..

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Walking among the iron monuments impresses the scale of the harbour. I would have loved to travel out to the artificial reef from the beach.

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The mussels have a new home, showing the movement of the tide.

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The allies sunk a huge number of old ships instantly to create an artificial reef called the Phoenix breakwaters, which you can see in the distance.

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And the tour was coming to an end, Juno breach was ahead … on the way home.

NORMANDY DAY 3: ARROMANCHES 360

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Day 3 in Normandy had a simple plan, Arromanches, Canada’s beach – Juno and then a cemetery on the way home.

Arromanches 360 was recommended by friends as a ‘must do’:

The SAEM Arromanches 360, created upon the initiative of Lower Normandy Regional Council for the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Landing, presents an exceptional film projected on 9 screens in a circular cinema: “The Price of Freedom”.

An exclusive procedure is employed to obtain the 360° projection : the Circorama, conceived by Patrick Besenval and the Futuroscope productions.

You enter the building, overlooking Sword beach and stand in the middle of a dome. The film plays out on 9 screens all around you, blending footage of modern day Normandy beaches with footage of the invasion. A truly moving experience, in fact we found it one of the most profound pieces of the trip. It really made it sink in.

Overlooking the site is a statue, which made me pause and think; Mother Mary or simply a statue of one of the many mothers who left their son on that beach?

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Upon exiting the building, you can go back to your car or walk down the path to Sword beach – the British beach. We walked down the path ..

NORMANDY DAY 2: CLOSING OMAHA – THE MUSEUM

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As we left the beach, we decided on one final stop, the Omaha Beach Memorial Museum (Le musée Mémorial d’Omaha Beach). It is what you would expect, although everything is a bit better protected as it did not have the scattered, family run business feel like the D-Day museum (which I enjoyed more). A few photos below.

The Sherman tank at the entrance.

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A German camouflage helmet.

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Another view of the landing craft. Imagine 36 men crowded into the craft:

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The craft was one of many D-Day innovations. Called the Higgins Boat or Landing Craft Vehicle or Personnel (LCVP), it has quite an interesting story:

Andrew Higgins started out in the lumber business, but gradually moved into boatbuilding, which became his sole operation after the lumber transport company he was running went bankrupt in 1930.

Fortuitously, the United States Marine Corps, always interested in finding better ways to get men across a beach in an amphibious landing and frustrated that the Navy’s Bureau of Construction and Repair could not meet its requirements, began to express interest in Higgins’ boat. When tested in 1938 by the Navy and Marine Corps, Higgins’ Eureka boat surpassed the performance of the Navy-designed boat and was tested by the services during fleet landing exercises in February 1939. Satisfactory in most respects, the boat’s major drawback appeared to be that equipment had to be unloaded, and men disembarked, over the sides—thus exposing them to enemy fire in a combat situation. But it was put into production and service as the Landing Craft, Personnel (Large), (LCP(L)). The LCP(L) had two machine gun positions at the bow. The LCP(L) or commonly called the "U-boat" or the "Higgins" boat, was supplied to the British where it was initially known as the "R-boat" and used for Commando raids.

The Japanese had been using ramp-bowed landing boats in the Second Sino-Japanese War since the summer of 1937—boats that had come under intense scrutiny by the Navy and Marine Corps observers at Shanghai in particular, including from future General Victor H. Krulak.[1] When shown a picture of one of those craft in 1941, Higgins soon thereafter got in touch with his chief engineer, and, after describing the Japanese design over the telephone, told the engineer to have a mock-up built for his inspection upon his return to New Orleans.

Within one month, tests of the ramp-bow Eureka boat in Lake Pontchartrain showed conclusively that successful operation of such a boat was feasible. This became the Landing Craft, Personnel (Ramped) (LCP(R)). The machine gun positions were still at the front of the boat but closer to the side to give access between them to the ramp. The design was still not ideal as the ramp was a bottleneck for the troops as was the case with the British Landing Craft Assault of the year before.

No less an authority than the Supreme Allied Commander declared the Higgins boat to be crucial to the Allied victory on the European Western Front and the previous fighting in North Africa and Italy:

"Andrew Higgins … is the man who won the war for us. … If Higgins had not designed and built those LCVPs, we never could have landed over an open beach. The whole strategy of the war would have been different."—General Dwight Eisenhower

It is interesting to see that one of the most important inventions of WWII was based on a Japanese design (or reverse engineered). A tactic the Japanese are famous for.

And so ends a very full day.

NORMANDY DAY 2: CIDER

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As we drove from Pointe du Hoc back toward Omaha, we passed another interesting site that I had spotted as we passed, an apple orchard. We had to stop …

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The Lebrec family business is set up around an ancient U shaped building. You drive through the archway (above), pulling into a huge courtyard. The proprietor, Bernard Lebrec, greeted us as we got out of the car, followed by an enormous Labrador who’s only goal was to drop at your feet and get his belly rubbed. Looking around, you come to see just how big the place is. I asked him how many people live here? He responded that his mother lives in the main house, he rents out an apartment on one end and .. on Mondays he lives there (pointing), on Tuesdays there (pointing), on Wednesdays here, at which point he burst out laughing.

A picture of the wall, with the manor house in the background.

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An outside view of one of the walls. Imagine being a kid here, exploring all the rooms …

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Of course I had to ask if the place was occupied during the war. Sure enough, his family moved to Paris while the German army occupied the home. Hard to imagine, giving up your home and all the possessions that you own to the occupier. As Stephen Ambrose says in Band of Brothers (page 143):

As had been true of the villages of France on both sides of the line on the Western Front 1914-1918, the civilian residents of the Island were evacuated (and Holland is the most densely populated country on earth). This gave the men almost unlimited opportunities for looting., opportunities that were quickly seized. Webster wrote, “civilians dwell under the misapprehension that only Germans and Russians go through their drawers, closets and chicken coops, whereas every G.I. of my acquaintance made a habit of doing so.” Watches, clocks, jewellery, small (and large) pieces of furniture, and of course liquor quickly disappeared – that is, what was left, as the British had already stripped the area.

We picked up a bottle of strong cider, Calvados, which I detest. Not unlike Scotch:

Calvados, from Normandy, is a spirit is made of cider through a process called double distillation. In the first pass, the result is a liquid containing 28%–30% alcohol. In a second pass, the amount of alcohol is augmented to about 40%.

We also picked up a bottle of sparkling cider, or what the French call bouche (Bouché simply means that the cider is in a pressure bottle with a champagne style pressure cork). Only 5% alcohol and a very distinct taste. Hard to describe, other than earthy and fantastic. I would have loved to have grabbed a case at €5 a bottle, had I known I would like it so much. A quick look on the LCBO website shows a Quebec variant (At 3X the cost). They describe it as:

Clear straw colour and sparkling; aromas and flavours of fresh apple; off dry on the palate, with refreshing acidity on the finish.

What a great place. Back in the car, we headed to Omaha (again).

A WEEKEND IN NORMANDY – PART 1

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Well, we are finally settling into our new home. That means I can start processing the photos from a few of our last trips, Italy and Normandy in particular. One of the advantages of England is that it is so close to everything. Heathrow is a great jump off to Europe with low air fares (although I doubt that our travel agent every got us a low fare) and the Eurotunnel which is a hop, skip and a jump into France.

One of my personal ‘must do’s’ before we left England was Normandy. As an avid war history buff, there was no way that the opportunity could be missed – and of course, we both knew that the boys would love it. So, on a May long weekend we hit the road. To prepare for the trip, I cracked out an old documentary that I use to love as a young boy – The World at War. We watched the D-Day episode and it set the tone for the trip, giving the family a grounding in what we were about to see. The most significant (and widely watched) piece of footage was shot on Juno beach by Sergeant Bill Grant. The film shows Canadian troops of the Queen’s Own Rifles, 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, landing in the second wave at Bernieres-sur-Mer, Juno Beach, on D-Day.

"It’s the film sequence that epitomizes June 6; that indelible sequence showing darkened but clearly visible figures of the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada silently exchanging last moment instructions, moving ladders and rifles into final ready position and patting the forward-most troops on their backs for encouragement. The doors swing open and the brighter outside light streams in. The first troops leap out of the landing craft. Ahead of them, clearly captured in Grant’s sequence, are the famous beach-resort houses that the Germans had incorporated into their coastal-defence system. It is point-of-view film of the greatest amphibious invasion in history — the D-Day landings." (from an article by Ted Barris, Friday, June 4, 2004 – The Globe and Mail).

The war footage was rushed to England where it was showed around the world to show the landing in Europe.

As a family, when it comes to trips, we are not the ‘early starter types’. We have a philosophy (which at times I have resisted), if you jam in too much, make the days too long, you lose the moment – and it becomes seeing sights for the sake of seeing sights, instead of truly enjoying it. So we scheduled a Flexipass time for 10AM and headed to France. Our final destination for the day was to be Hotel Barriere in Deauville Normandy. While making the 6 hour drive, we planned to stop at Dieppe to see the sites.

2009 05 02 Deauville (3)

2009 05 03 Deauville (10)

The French countryside was beautiful, farms in full swing and mustard fields in full bloom – yellow as far as you could see. As you drive toward Dieppe, the first thing that struck me were the markers. Everywhere you went, you saw memorials to fallen soldiers (many from WWI). It is not unlike England, and Canada, where there are memorials. The difference is the location. There are markers in the towns, but there are also markers randomly scattered along the roads. A reminder that this is where the two great wars were fought, hand to hand.

2009 05 01 Canadian war monument

The second thing I noticed as we drove into Dieppe were the Canadian flags. I have read about Dieppe, and there is much debate on the debacle:

The Battle of Dieppe was a test for the full-scale invasion of western Europe. The plan was to make a frontal assault on the town of Dieppe, across the English Channel on the coast of France. The raid on Dieppe would give the Allies a chance to test techniques and equipment for landing troops from the sea. The Battle of Dieppe was a disaster for the Canadians. Nearly 1000 Canadians died and nearly 2000 were taken prisoner.

In the book Juno: Canadians at D-Day, there are two views. One view states that it was a tragic waste of Canadian life while many others say that it was key to D-Days success. Dieppe taught many lessons to the Allies, some very mundane, but in the end it helped teach the Allies about how to invade. A terrible cost, but one that paid off in many lives saved.

The third thing that I/we realized is that it was a national holiday in France and that the sights that we were going to see (The museum) were in fact closed. Which was fine, as we climbed the hills overlooking the beaches and had our first experience with German bunkers. They are scattered along the cliff, huge concrete behemoths, hidden slits poking out of the ground, some are left as only chunks of broken rebar. Amazing to climb into them and look out on the beach, although you need to be careful – the local kids obviously enjoy hosting beer drinking parties in them.

My fourth realization? That I forgot to put a CF card in my camera. So, no pictures of Dieppe. Well, that isn’t quite true. I had many pictures of Dieppe. The problem is that after I looked at them in the viewer on the camera’s built in memory, they disappeared into the cosmos …..

After a light lunch, we headed down the coast toward our hotel. Driving through the French countryside is a wonderful thing. I constantly found myself staring out the window, enjoying the huge range of architecture, thatch roofs with tulips growing out the top, Wisteria in full bloom. And of course, churches. Beautiful old churches, everywhere.

2009 05 03 One of many French churches (3)

2009 05 02 Deauville (2)

We arrived at the hotel late and faced our first challenge, the car park was full (groan). A common occurrence in England and Europe. When they were building in the 1800’s, no one really took the time to think ahead to when stables would be displaced by motorcars (smile). At least the French are a bit more commonsensical than the British, they all park in the same direction. It only took 20 minutes of driving around and around to find a spot.

We decided to head down to the hotel restaurant (which is highly rated) and enjoy a quick dinner as we were all tuckered. It was there that I enjoyed what had to be my 400th ‘buyer beware’ experience. I have become quite fond of Gin and Tonic while in England (I am told that drinking ‘G&T is ‘very British’ … so be it). So I ordered up. The waiter brought me a Bombay Sapphire, in the glass with ice, Tonic not poured. It looked like a lot of Gin, the glass was half full. It was. I had to keep adding tonic to distil it down. When I got the bill, I figured out why – €18. For my Canadian friends, that is about $25. My one and only G&T in that hotel (LOL).

Outrageous G&T aside, the hotel was amazing. Any hotel that lets animals in the restaurant and in the room is alright by me. We could learn from the French in that regard – that is for sure.

2009 05 02 Barriere Deauville_

So ended Day 1. Day 2, off to the beaches. And of course, the weather looked ‘very D-Day’ like, clouds ahead.

2009 05 02 Barriere Deauville (2) 

PARIS DAY 2 CONTINUED

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After enjoying the Catacombs, we headed toward the Eiffel Tower and the Military Museum. Our first stop was lunch at a little French deli near École Militaire. The food  was fantastic and we did everything that we could to get the French lady who was serving us to smile (she certainly was not going to speak English).

The École Militaire is a vast military training facility near the Eiffel Tower and had I read the map correctly, I would have realized that it was not the Musée de l’Armée that we were looking for. It is very vast and in the biting wind, the troops were getting a bit frustrated that I could not find the entrance.

2008 Dec 28 Paris Armoury-4

2008 Dec 28 Paris Armoury-5

As we circled, we came across this memorial and to the best of my knowledge this refers to the round-ups of Jews and other political targets in Paris:

December 12, 1941:
Arrests in homes. Roundups carried out in Paris, regardless of nationality but aimed particularly at French Jews (dignified Jews) – sent to the camp of Compiegne.

2008 Dec 28 Paris Armoury-6

Coming around another corner, I finally realized we were circling around the wrong building (DOH). Guess I should have looked up earlier.

2008 Dec 28 Paris Armoury-7

I should have realized that it was the building with the gold roof.

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The Musée de l’Armée is a museum at Les Invalides in Paris, France. Originally built as a hospital and home for disabled soldiers by Louis XIV, it now houses the Tomb of Napoleon and the museum of the Army of France. The museum’s collections cover the time period from antiquity until the 20th century.

The start of our tour was the tomb of Napoleon (among others). This is a magnificent building dedicated to one of the world’s greatest generals:

Within Les Invalides is the final resting place of Napoleon Bonaparte.

The former emperor’s body was returned to France from St Helenain 1840 and, after a state funeral, was laid to rest in St Jerome’s Chapel while his tomb was completed in 1861.

There was no expense spared for the tomb and Napoleon Bonaparte’s body lies within six separate coffins. They are made of iron, mahogany, two of lead, ebony, and the outer one is red porphyry.

The tomb sits on a green-granite pedestal surrounded by 12 pillars of victory.

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I found this book very interesting, it is Napoleon’s notes about Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, which influenced his thinking. The Scots would be proud.

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What is also interesting (and not publicized) is the fact that the tomb also hosted hundreds of President  Mitterrand’s spies who kept tabs on his enemies.

A FORMER French spy chief has revealed how a bunker beneath Napoleon’s tomb was used by hundreds of secret policemen to monitor the conversations of politicians, writers and celebrities.

Pierre Charroy, 69, a retired general, lifted the veil last week on one of the most sensitive secrets of French intelligence when he told a court about the so-called inter-ministerial control group, or GIC, that he ran for 16 years.

He is one of 12 accused in the “Elysée-gate” scandal, a case that has made history by showing the extraordinary lengths to which the late President François Mitterrand went to keep tabs on his enemies.

Abusing the near absolute powers of the French presidency, the Socialist leader set up a cell of security officials in the Elysée Palace to protect secrets such as the existence of his illegitimate daughter and his work as an official in the collaborationist wartime Vichy government.

We then headed into the museum. Put a male in a war museum, you can never go wrong. The museum covers all major wars and France’s colonial days. A few highlights for me ….

It is scary to think that exploitation of Africans was so common place in an era not that long past. These posters are from 1905, The paper on the right was denouncing the exploitation of black Africans (November, 1905).

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2008 Dec 28 Military Museum Paris_-27

During the Battle of the Marne (WWI), the German’s tried to encircle Paris. At one point, the legend of the Taxis of the Marne was created, where 670 taxis took 6,000 troops to the front as the rail system was too congested. You can read about it here. It should be noted that the fares were paid, at 27% of the metered rate.

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This weapon stopped me in my tracks. In the middle of machine guns and artillery from WWI was a French made cross bow. It was used to hurl grenades and made from wood. Someone must not have seen the memo about the move to Gatling guns and mortars.

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The tank changed the cavalry but it was the Gatling gun that changed man’s approach to infantry. This 1939 Gatling gun looked menacing.

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This map reaffirmed my admiration for the British in World War II. A small island of blue holding out against the Axis regime. Thank God for the British and Churchill.

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The benefits of video games? My boys could name an astonishing number of weapons in that museum including the German Goliath, the tracked mine (thanks to Company of Heroes). It was bigger than I imagined.

2008 Dec 28 Military Museum Paris_-52

So ended day 2, strolling past a beautiful flower shop on our way back to the hotel.

2008 Dec 28 Paris_-3

A LAST APPEAL TO REASON

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While at Dover Castle I came across ‘A Last Appeal to Reason’ by Adolf Hitler in the secret war tunnel reception area. What stuck me was the the title – appeal to reason – Adolf Hitler? An oxymoron?

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Of course, I had to read it and found part of it here. Which lead me on a bit of an interesting journey – seems this site is one of those ‘there was no holocaust’ sites with all the usual nonsense about how the pictures of concentration camps are fakes. As you can see here, they have many interesting posts on different historical events. The write up on the Battle of Britain is interesting as is the essay on the treatment of POWs by the Allies (Sadly – barbarism during war is never one sided – so this is not that much of a stretch to believe).

The write up ‘Something of an enigma’ is practically interesting as it claims that much of the WWII footage is a fraud:

THE SICKEST FRAUD OF ALL

One of the sad and sickest frauds of the wartime movie makers is the celebrated footage of the D-Day landings. This was doctored for US General Eisenhower. This footage was filmed during ‘training exercises’ at Slapton Sands in Devon when during the landings American troops opened fire on their own compatriots struggling ashore from landing craft. It is estimated that just fewer than one thousand GIs were killed during this exercise. The US infantrymen’s bodies seen by cinemagoers floating in the waves were killed by their own side, not by German troops.

Jerome Kuehl, the leading television producer and author, an associate producer on the Thames Television World at War series, has revealed many wartime film frauds. He admitted that even he has been taken in by film footage and believes that film from the Battle of Stalingrad was stage-managed after the Russian victory.

A quick search of the web found the following explanation:

The Memorial

Although peaceful today, the area around Slapton sands and the Ley (lake) behind were a battle training ground in preparation for the 1944 D-Day landings. Many of the farms and villages in the area were vacated by the inhabitants from 1943 to allow the US army to train.

On the beach at Slapton sands stands a granite memorial to men killed during a training session which went disastrously wrong when it was attacked by German boats. The inscription reads;

    Dedicated by the United States of America in honor of the 749 men of the 4th Infantry Division, the 279th Combat Engineers, and the 70th Tank Battalion, United States Army, who, along with crew members of the eight landing ships, U.S. Navy, perished off the coast of Slapton Sands, Torcross, while participating in Operation Tiger, April 26-28 1944. A training exercise in amphibious landings, Operation Tiger was a prelude to the invasion of Europe on June 6, 1944. This joint rehearsal by British and American forces resulted in a military tragedy in which the support convoy was attacked during the early morning hours by German schnellboots. The surprise attack resulted in the loss of several fully loaded and manned landing craft.

    May these men rest in the knowledge that the lessons of this tragedy added significantly to the ability of the Allies to carry out the successful invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. May these soldiers and sailors be remembered for their supreme sacrifice for the Allied cause in World War II.

    Interestingly enough, the village tourism site makes no reference to the tragedy.

    The web is one interesting place.