Photo's from my recent trip through Northern France

[Seiler]

Very touching scenes.
Thank you for your effort.
Much appreciated.We really DO owe a lot!
Seiler.

[seebee1]

Excellent images, many thanks for sharing .

[kammo man]

Thanks for the report mate !!!!!


Your pictures are very well done .

owen

[IanC]

Thanks guys for all your very kind comments.

Very much appreciated.

Regards

Ian

[deejay]

The plaque on the barn wall.

Although not clear on the photo's there is evidence of what I think are bullet marks all along the barn.

This wall was in fact severly damaged by machine gun fire as the execution of 97 British soldiers took place as they were marching in front of it coming from the left, thinking they were going into captivity. What you see are indeed bullets marks for sure.
According to an article I read about this barn and incident, the bullet holes were first repaired by using a filler and a few years later somewhere around 1970 fully plastered with cement. It surprised me to see that the plaster has been removed and so the wall restored showing these marks of atrocities making it a major memorial to those who were killed there and to the two soldiers; Private William O'Callaghan and Private Albert Pooley who survived and escaped the scene.

Thanks for sharing these pictures!

Two I would also like to share:

Here a picture of a bunker on the island of Texel - Holland also showing evidence of one of the many execution sites where resistance members were shot. Most of the bullet holes then were at breast height..

[holden]

Thanks Ian great photos, thanks for posting and another area certainly paying a visit to soon - cheers!!!

[Adam.B]

Wow great pics, thanks for sharing,
its good to see a modern view on the historical places of WW2

[Bluehawk]

As a young college student I took a slow drive from Luxembourg to Paris and noticed remnant pill boxes, even in places some barbed perimeter wire still standing amidst the fields - a melancholy silence of days and souls gone by, in the haste to get somewhere else.

Later, the train from Gare du Nord to Dunkirk, and then to Dover - again out there, on each passing horizon, the small hard rusting remains of a horror no American has known since our Civil War, nor ever on that scale.

No degree or depth of study since then, or before, has ever adequately explained the answer to, "Why?"

We need these reminders...

[IanC]

This wall was in fact severly damaged by machine gun fire as the execution of 97 British soldiers took place as they were marching in front of it coming from the left, thinking they were going into captivity. What you see are indeed bullets marks for sure.
According to an article I read about this barn and incident, the bullet holes were first repaired by using a filler and a few years later somewhere around 1970 fully plastered with cement. It surprised me to see that the plaster has been removed and so the wall restored showing these marks of atrocities making it a major memorial to those who were killed there and to the two soldiers; Private William O'Callaghan and Private Albert Pooley who survived and escaped the scene.

Thanks for sharing these pictures!

Two I would also like to share:

Here a picture of a bunker on the island of Texel - Holland also showing evidence of one of the many execution sites where resistance members were shot. Most of the bullet holes then were at breast height..

Thank you for the information. I didn't know that the Barn had at one been replasted and now has been (rightly in my view) restored.

Thanks also for the information and pictures from Texel. I learn something new about WW2 everyday. It is indeed very chilling to see the bullet marks.

Regards


Ian

[helmuthunter]

Great thread, thanks for sharing...regards, Johnno.

[Aiceman]

Thanks for the photos.
Inspired to travel