Normandy 70

Final preparations are almost complete for the first of three trips to Normandy in this 70th Anniversary year

As usual, there will be a mix of research,, history, meeting Veterans and I suspect that beer, wine, cider & Calvados will also be involved!

Day #1 – Friday 30th May

This should be a fairly easy day as we’re still using Sterling and English! We’re off down to St Albans to neet up with Stuart Hadaway. Stuart used to be a curator at the RAF Museum at Hendon, but is now with the RAF’s Air Historical Branch. As regular readers of this blog will know, Stuart also writes books, two of which I have (& have promoted here) and he’s got a new one out soon focusing on WW1 out in the Middle East. I suspect that, as we’re staying near to a brewpub (The Farmer’s Boy) the odd pint or three may be consumed… purely in the interests of research, of course!

Day #2 – Saturday 31st May

Sees us heading over to France.. with an overnight stop in Boulogne. Hopefully, our timings will allow us time for some sight-seeing (and perhaps a visit to the  Trois Brasseurs in Calais… just to confound & confuse my wargaming  & Manchester Military History Society friends, we might even visit Vauban’s Citadel in Calais and even Napoleon’s Column above Boulogne

Day #3 – Sunday 1st June

This day will see us heading over to the St Lo area ready for our continuing search for Francis Gillespie’s crash site & we might also try to meet the people who own the land where Ray Elledge crashed

Day #3 – Monday 2nd June

This is the  day that we’ll hopefully finding crash sites and then perhaps meeting some veterans or just a general “mooch” around. In the evening, hopefully we’ll be meeting up with Bill & Elizabeth Sullivan in Ste Mere Eglise ready for our tour tomorrow

Day #4 – Tuesday 3rd June

Once again, we’ve been asked to accompany Bill & Elizabeth on a tour of Normandy visiting some of the places that Bill & Morris Sheppard were held as PoWs or evaded from the  Germans. This is a pretty massive honour & thoroughly enjoyable… ‘though hopefully, we’ll be able to find somewhere more substantial to eat than McDonalds this year!

Day #5 – Wednesday 4th June

For part of the day, we’re hoping to find some of the  places that the PBI that were held in the shed were captured. I suspect that we won’t be able to find the exact location, I’m hoping that we might have sufficient information to be at least be able to get close to the  likely area.

Day #6 – Thursday 5th June

As has become a regular event, we’ll be meeting up with Albert Figg an ex-gunner with 112 Field Artillery Regiment on top of Hill 112 and then off for a meal; we’ll also be taking some additional photos of the  Operation EPSOM area ready for my talk to the Manchester Military History Society on the Operation. We’re staying overnight at Tony & Jill Stansfield’s (again as usual) & Tony has assured us that his home-brewed cider is ready, so that could be fun!

Day #7 – Friday 6th June

So, the 70th Anniversary of D Day – the beginning of the end for the Nazi regime. We’re avoiding the main events as they’re going to be total traffic jams, ticket only & time for veterans… so after a visit to Hill 226 (to take photos in the correct place this year!), we’ll once again be joining in with the ceremony at St Charles de Percy Commonwealth Cemetery followed by an evening celebration in Montchamps

Day #8 – Saturday 7th June

At the moment, we’ve nothing specifically planned for this… perhaps nursing sore heads from the night before!

Day #9 – Sunday 8th June

We’ll be visiting the Tilly Book fair at Tilly sur Seulles run by Stephane Jaquet just outside of the  museum in the town & well worth a visit in its own right; having left the museum, we’ll be heading off to Rouen and our (again) regular visit to Patrick at the Brasserie du Chant du Loup

Day #10 – Monday 9th June

Today, we’ll be heading off to Peronne where there’s a World War 1 museum which should be interesting… of course, the fact that there’s a brewery there, too, has nothing at all to do with our visit!

Day # 11 – Tuesday 10th June

This is our last full day in France and additional sampling of French beers will undoubtedly be undertaken

Day #12 – Wednesday 11th June

Sees us heading back to the UK hopefully with a lot of new memories and research material gained as  well as friendships firmed up and new friends made