| Sainte-Mere-Eglise Sainte-Mere-Eglise was first on the
list for Friday the 28th. Once more, we'd previously visited this
museum, but it's had another large building added since we were last
there. The two existing buildings were more or less the same with the
C-47 and Waco glider, but smaller displays had changed and interactive
displays added. |
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There was a fibreglass half uniform on the upper level, so we all stood behind it for a photo. It was a bit low for me and I had to squeeze my shoulders in narrow enough to be out of shot! We didn't take any of our own green clothes on holiday. There didn't seem much point without the Jeep to play with. |
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| Utah Beach Museum The weather on the 28th was the
opposite of the previous day, with it being bright, warm and sunny. We
returned to the Utah beach, this time to visit the museum. The main
building was fairly unchanged from memory, but since our last visit, a
large hangar was built which now contains a B-26 Marauder. This aircraft
was formerly located at the "Musée de l'air et de l'espace" at Le Bourget
Airport, in Paris. I saw it there in 2008 in its silver and olive drab
Free French scheme ( see inset picture ). It is on loan to the Utah
museum, but I don't know how long for. |
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Around 1,000 feet to the North West of the museum is another concrete bunker. As we were walking from the museum towards the bunker, a small convoy of a Jeep, two GMCs and a Dodge drove by heading north. We'd see them again later. We had a quick look around the bunker, then moved on up the coast. |
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| WN8 Battery Blockhaus De La Breche A little over a mile up the road was
the WN8 Blockhaus. I had a 15 minute explore around several bunkers and
emplacements before we moved on again. |
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| Leclerc Memorial Another mile up the coast brought us
to the Leclerc Memorial. We came here in 2005 and as expected for an
outdoor memorial, it doesn't appear to have changed at all. However, the
paintwork on all the vehicles looks in fairly good condition, so they
must have been repainted since our last trip. |
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It was by this memorial that we caught up with the small convoy that drove by at the Utah museum. They were setting up camp in the field next to the memorial for a military show that weekend. |
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