It is unfortunate that
@Gary Gruber's intemperate response to
@Peter Roberts' post and images has detracted from what was, for me, a very thought-provoking post. Thank you
@Peter Roberts for posting this. It caused me many hours of contemplation, reflection and looking at some old photos.
A particularly bloody battle in WWI was the Battle of Delville Wood, which was part of the Battle of the Somme in 1916. My paternal grandfather and two of his brothers fought in Delville Wood and, even more surprisingly considering the 83% casualty rate of the South African Infantry in Delville Wood, all three survived. My grandfather and his older brother were badly wounded, but his younger brother, Stanley, served through all of WWI with hardly a scratch.
I had always promised my father that I would go with him to Delville Wood for the 100th anniversary commemoration of the start of the Battle of Delville Wood. Sadly my father died in February 2012 and so, in July 2016, together with a number of fellow South African Military Veterans living in Australia, I went on a tour of the WWI battlefields in northern France and southern Belgium. We were at Delville Wood for the 100th anniversary of the start of the Battle on 14 July 2016. We conducted a memorial ceremony and laid wreaths. We then continued on our battlefields tour, which finished in Brussels.
One thing that struck me was how many cemeteries there were and the number of headstones in each. And then there were the memorials such as those at Thiepval and Menin Gate to those whose graves are unknown. The number of names on the walls of these memorials is awe inspiring.
When our tour finished in Brussels, one of our number, a keen military historian, said that he would like to visit the Normandy Invasion Beaches. Four of us hired cars and we drove down to Normandy........
First stop was
Pegasus Bridge. This is the current bridge. The original WWII bridge was replaced after many years of good service and currently lies in a museum behind my back as I took this photo:
Then on to the Invasion Beaches......
Starting with
Sword:
And then continuing along the rest until
Omaha Beach:
Looking westwards towards Pointe du Hoc:
Looking eastwards:
To be continued..........