Normandy D-Day Event

Well, The Normandy event is certainly building up.

Heard a report last night that there are 3,500 restored WW2 vehicles on site spread in camps along the Normandy landing beaches. Have driven the 41 Chev Panel Van around a bit and there are endless convoys running the numerous beautiful narrow lanes.

At interesting places such as St Mere Eglise (the Us paruchute drops) the little town square has maybe 300 vehicles parked everywhere - constantly coming and going -and many of them huge vehicles and not a few tanks and armoured cars.

I went up to the Canadian camp this morning and it was restricted to British Commonwealth vehicles but a few Yanks (like our Chevrolet) were allowed to sneak in if driven by poms, Canadians kiwis or Australians. The Brits sure mastered the art of building atrocious vehicles.

Will get some more photos of the yankee iron later.






My Chev in the "foreigners" section.

Some more

Gr8 info n pix Lang
seen a bit on the local TV news about D Day
Any pix of the Rogers tank transporter trailer??



Thanx in advance
cya

Swishy

On the beach at 0500 tomorrow morning. Normally about 500 at Arromanches, the main British beach. Mostly British/Canadian vehicles. Will go to Omaha and Utah beaches on the weekend to get some heavy trailer stuff for you.

We had a long run this morning with the poms to Le Baron where there is a tank memorial About 150 vehicles and the local village put on a 3 course sit down lunch with wine for 350 people.

Unfortunately after a good briefing a Dick in a Duck about halfway down the convoy took the wrong exit at a roundabout dragging half the convoy with him. Bloody hilarious as the roads are only 3 metres wide between hedges so we had about 50 vehicles ducking down farm tracks, GMC's trying to do 36 point turns, people yelling and every bastard with his phone out on Google maps trying to direct the shambles.

Eventually everyone got to the village with about 25% of the vehicles evenly spread each arriving via one of the N,S,E and west roads into the place.

Needless to say Bev and I got out early and had a great run home. Now three hours later and none of the 150 have yet arrived back at camp. If anyone sees a group of army vehicles going down Parramatta Road could you please redirect them.

Some photos from today.

Lang

Sum more info Lang
ovr @ nuther hangout

www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/57531-the-an...sary-of-d-day-today/

cya

Dawn on Juno Beach Normandy 06 June.
You can see the artificial harbour (Mulberry).Huge concrete boxes towed across the channel and sunk to form a combined sea wall and loading dock. Many are still there at Aromanches.

My Chev with a couple of Poms


Predawn arrival.


About 300 light and medium vehicles in place, heavies starting to arrive


Ducks going for a swim. About 20 landed line abreast as the sun broke the horizon.


Couple of old Cats. Both these tractors landed in the first hour 06 June 1944

Why are we waiting???

Thanks Lang, what a great experience. I would have loved to be there.
Thanks for sharing.

We are waiting for the vehicles to be parked on the quay at Port-en-Bessin.

A beautiful fishing village which was the border between the American Omaha Beach and the British Gold Beach. 470 British Commandos were landed in rubber boats on the night of the 5th in the next bay tasked with taking the town. Before they reached Port-en-Bessin they had 28 drowned, 30 killed in the initial contacts and another 30 missing assumed either drowned or killed.

Just as they were going to give up the fight and sit and wait for the landing forces to reach them a Captain went beserk and rallied the boys into a final suicide charge and took the remaining German concrete machine gun bunkers. They lost half their people.

Port-en-Bessin was needed to be the French end of PLUTO (Petrol Line Under The Ocean) and ships had already started rolling out the big hose on the ocean floor to carry the fuel for the hundreds of thousands of vehicles and armour eventually landed

This is one of only two Pluto pumps left of those that supplied fuel to the Normandy beaches. There were twenty four hidden in various places around Sandown and Shanklin, one was in the back of an ice cream parlour! Work started recently to refurbish the underground control centre for them.
They were supplied from refineries all over mainland England through an 1100 mile network of pipelines from as far as Essex and Cheshire.