#Normandy

From my trip in 2016 for the 72nd Anniversary of the D-Day Invasion, #Normandie #France. Starting in the city of Carentan and proceeding into the countryside and hedgerows. Sorry for the bouncy camera and wind noise.
Thank you for watching.

[@maxvandoorn5799]

Glad you posted the full drive there so next time I take the jeep to Normandy I know exactly how to get there.

[@crazycaseyscustoms]

Haha! I never thought about it like that, Max. I know it sounds corny, but my memories of that trip, and of our French cross-country road trip are some of the best of my entire life.

[@1fknhpycmpr355]

Friend of mine bought a WLA Harley at last year. Most of our WLA's are imported from Russia, they got a huge load of them as a military aid from US. But that WLA is a real deal from Normandy. So that stuff still exists in here Europe

[@crazycaseyscustoms]

I believe it. That’s really incredible! Here most of the Jeeps are HQ battalion markings if you research their history. As we didn’t bring hardly anything back from Europe. And then there’s the fabled tale of all the vehicles that were just dumped in the ocean.

[@836dmar]

Hah! Just started the video but we just got back from there this year! Our jumping off point was an AB&B in Carentan. Too crowded in the cities. All the hedgerow are eerie, no? Running down those unsaved lanes was amazing. I think that’s how all the roads were during the war. You turned around at Angoville but didn’t get out? It’s a great chapel where two airborne medics treated both sides. Still blood on the pews in there. It was surprising how few people were actually at many important spots but I’m a bit weird. They aren’t really commonly known unless you study up ahead of time. So easy to miss on the go. Very cool video. Thanks for sharing!

[@crazycaseyscustoms]

Too cool! I would love to go back some day, Dave. When we went we stayed in a little farmhouse just outside of Carentan; I actually slept in a barn. Sadly the long time owner, Pierre, who had been a Lycée Francais teacher in San Francisco in a previous life, passed away in 2020, and his wife Sylvia who ran it with him moved to the United States after he was gone. We also spent a night with some Brits who had rented a farmhouse near Brecourt Manor; and the owner brought out a BAR that he had found hidden inside of one of the walls of his barn. The history there is palpable. And yeah, we stopped at the Église Saint-Côme et Saint-Damien d'Angoville au Plain (don’t worry, I’m not that good, I had to look it up). That pew is really something to stand there and behold. I also thought the hole in the roof and the cracked floor tile from an undetonated mortar was pretty wild. Luckily for us we were with friends who really know their WWII history, so we saw most of the important spots. One place we went that most know nothing about was Saint-Lô. My French friend’s parents grew up there as little children during the war. The US, acting on bad intelligence about the location of Rommel’s Panzers, bombed the Hell out of Saint-Lô, and the stark contrast of 50’s construction amid stone buildings alternating up and down the same streets is quite sobering. They actually have a large statue of a German soldier waving a white flag (bed linen from an orphanage) during the attack; I don’t remember what they call him, but it’s something like the angel of the children, or some such. It was the only place I went in all of Northern France where they didn’t really seem to like Americans. But an incredible spot, nonetheless. I’d be curious to know what it was like this year. My friend was there for the 70th. And other friends for the 75th, and they said the crowds were far smaller. Seems less and less people make the trip every year, and we sort of fear the history may ultimately be forgotten.