From: Nigel Hay (Nigel@milweb.net)
Date: Mon Jun 07 2004 - 04:49:11 PDT
Well the weather couldnt have been a greater contrast to June 6th 1944. I
hope the veterans coped with the intense heat.
A truly moving and humbling experience.
Over 5000 military vehicles were in Normandy and despite the zero movement
in the controlled zone on Sunday I am sure everyone had a marvellous time.
We only got to see a tiny fraction of the vehicles but there was some very
rare stuff.
I was privelidged and indeed humbled to have been on one of eight DUKW's
that took part in the wreath laying ceremony on the sea just off Juno beach,
watched by many thousands of people.
This was a tangible contibution that our historic military vehicles made to
the commemoration events, rather than us just being an enthusiastic
prescence, adding to the road chaos as Normandy struggled to cope with the 1
million extra people.
We then went off up the coast and came ashore to look at a destroyed
bunker...... and the DUKW got stuck donw to the hull in a mud bank as we
drove down the beach to go out to see again. Gales of laughter........
attempts to winch it out resultedin a broken PTO prop shaft - thank god for
cellular phones...... eventually we were pulled out some hours later by an
M4 High Speed Tractor..... but thats a long story and there were gales of
laughter.....
You will be able to see the photos in Classic Military Vehicles
magazine......
And to quote a well known sonnet....
"I must go down to the sea again
To the lonely sea and the sky
-I left my shoes and socks there
I wonder if they are dry?"
And now I am off for a special breakfast with the MVT and its founder, the
man who started the historic military vehicle hobby, Peter Gray.
Then back ot Vire to watch the 76 veterans who liberated Vire August 7th
1944 return to the town. The schools are closing so all the children can
attend and honour them - tonight a son et lumiere will be held to mark the
liberation. Many more events inland from the beaches will take place this
week.
I was able to CHOOSE to live in France becasue of the sacrifices of that
generation 60 years ago - we owe them an enourmous debt.
NIGE
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat May 07 2005 - 20:33:22 PDT