Normandy Then and Now 2018

Some of you older 'hacks' on here will already know that I enjoy doing the odd Then and Now photo. So on my latest trip to Normandy a few weeks ago I managed to get a few more of them done.

This famous photo set of SS-Sturmmann Otto Funk of the 15. (Aufklärungs ) Kompanie/ SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 25 was taken on 9th June in the village of Rots which is around 7 miles west of Caen.

Otto was 18 years old when these photos were taken and had 'celebrated' his birthday just 3 days earlier on 6th June. He survived the war and passed away in 2011.

The soldier carrying the MG42 in the background was SS-Grenadier Klaus Schuh who was killed on 26th June 1944.

 

Otto also featured on the front page of an edition of the Stuttgarter illustrierte journal.

 

An injured SS-Hauptsturmführer Rudolf von Ribbentrop leaving in a BMW R75 motorcycle sidecar after paying a visit to the remnants of 3rd Platoon (III. Zug) of the 15. Kompanie.

 

This is the main road through the village of Rots.The alleyway where the previous photos were taken is just off shot to the left.

 

This is looking from the alleyway back on to the main road. The caption of the 1944 photo states that the person on the Panther tank was Gert Krieger who was cleaning away the blood of his commander, SS-Unterscharführer Eismannafter after a shell had cut him in two.

 

Always like to see the then and now photos, thanks!

 

Wow......that's amazing, I can only dream of being able to do that. It gives me shivers, and I'm not even there...........knowing that 75 years ago people were quite literally fighting and dying where I stood, and now everyone just moves on with daily life, the past an afterthought.........

 

I know you are in Arizona, but if you ever get to the East Coast, I recommend going to Gettysburg. If you stand in the center of the Wheatfield and do a 360, you will be able to see most of 19 acres of ground. In that visible area, in the space of less than three hours on the afternoon and evening of 2 July 1863, some 20,000 men were engaged and suffered 6,000 casualties.

Don't get me started on Antietam...

 

One of the best accounts of the actions around Rots is in Marc Milner's excellent paper The Guns of Bretteville
The Guns of Bretteville: 13th Field Regiment, RCA, and the defence of Bretteville-l’Orgueilleuse, 7–10 June 1944

 

Love then and now photos. Well done.

 

It gets to me because in a sense I am just one generation removed from it. My Dad was a Scout at the 75th Anniversary, assisting the last vets and his Mother, my Grandmother, was Margaret Kendlehart, whose Grandfather was David Kendlehart, President of the Borough Council during the battle and de facto leader of the civilian government after the mayor fled. He was also good friends with David Wills, but a Democrat, otherwise it might have been my family's house that Lincoln would have stayed at before giving the Gettysburg Address.

 

It's part of my bucket list to go to Gettysburg and other Civil war battlefields to stand there and take in the emotion and tragedy that tool place there.

 

I gave my boys a sense of perspective on "history" when I told them their Granddad, who they knew very well and who they knew had fought in World War 2, had shaken the hands of Civil War veterans...like I said, effectively one generation removed.

 

This is Chambois where the Falaise Pocket was finally closed on 19th August 1944.

 

Left side of the road looks like it took more damage and was rebuilt more extensively than the right. Is there a story behind that? Of just the fortunes of war?

 

The building on the right does seem to have a few scorch marks on it. It could simply be down to luck that it wasn't extensively damaged.

 

German soldier alongside the church in Sainte-Mere-Eglise