D Day, then and now photos

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Some fascinating photo comparisons of D Day to the present. The building restorations are incredible. Some places look as though nothing ever happened there.
http://www.6juin1944.com/album/thennow/index.php

 

[Spitfire]

Always fascinating to see then and now pictures. Thank you for sharing this.

 

[scotrace]

Hardly a scar in many of the images. Amazing.

 

[HodgePodge]

Hardly a scar in many of the images. Amazing.

Darn, you beat me to it. I was just about to say how it amazes me when I see pictures like the one of the church at Bernieres sur Mer with the big shell holes in the bell tower, and how it must be a testament to the craft that they were able to so flawlessly repair so much masonry without something crumbling while they're at it.

I always have to stop and think, seeing those men posing for the camera, or just meeting it's gaze, "wonder if he made it home, or did he get killed that day, maybe that hour?"

 

[MisterCairo]

The website as a whole is fantastic, an amazing overview of Overlord.

 

[Spitfire]

I always have to stop and think, seeing those men posing for the camera, or just meeting it's gaze, "wonder if he made it home, or did he get killed that day, maybe that hour?"

I know. I get exactly the same feeling and sometimes I simply have to find out. Just like you say, it always starts with a photo. A stare to the camera, a grin - something I can't even define. But in order to understand the broughter picture and what it was like, it often helps to follow one mans destiny. If possible. I once tried it with a paratrooper from 101 Airborne Regiment (even met him in person in Normandy) - and lately with a RAF pilot (South African Albert G. Lewis) from the Battle of Britain. Even tried it with a hussar from Napoleons army - which was a bit harder. But I did get a bit of the way. Fascinating stuff!

 

[1930artdeco]

where are the now pics? Am I missing something as all I see are the then pics.

Mike

 

[HodgePodge]

where are the now pics? Am I missing something as all I see are the then pics.

Mike

The "now" pics take a few seconds to load. The pop-up for the pictures opens, the "then" picture will load, but for some reason the "now" picture loads off-screen and you have to scroll down again to get to it.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Here's another link,...

...with some different pics. http://www.allpics4u.com/places/normandy-1944-then-and-now.html

 

[Norumbega]

Fascinating. The ability of the European stone mason is pretty amazing. You can't help but view them as someone with an ant's mentality, in which, that which gets destroyed, is immediately rebuilt.
Secondly, the then and now photographs are riveting. Thanks for providing the link.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Fascinating. The ability of the European stone mason is pretty amazing. You can't help but view them as someone with an ant's mentality, in which, that which gets destroyed, is immediately rebuilt.
Secondly, the then and now photographs are riveting. Thanks for providing the link.

YW. And I think it's a matter of strict codes that don't allow the hodge-podge of architectural styles that we are accustomed to here. Here,we would just bulldoze the whole thing and start over using the Flavor of the Month style. The French are quite good at restoring and preserving buildings in as close to their original character as possible.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

In some of those, you'd never know anything had happened. That's really something.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Oscar Tango

Other completely rebuilt structures in Europe, which also begs the question: if they can rebuild these ancient edifices why can't they rebuild the World Trade Center as it originally was???

Ypres Cloth Hall (1304)
(original destroyed during WWI -- rebuilt between 1933 and 1967)

St Mark's Campanile, Venice (1514)
(original collapsed in 1902 -- rebuilt in 1912)