A Wanderful Life

It’s always a bit stunning to realise how much history has unfolded over the centuries in the UK within eyesight of what now appears to be a ‘normal’ village or town.

We have driven by this particular object for year after year and I always meant to go back and take a picture of it — but I only got around to doing it within this past week. It was a direct follow-on from a visit to an old World War II airfield that is now the museum dedicated to the 100th Bomber Group. And both the museum and this structure are less than a 5 minute drive down the road from my husband’s parents’ home in Norfolk.

As you can see, this machine gun emplacement on the edge of Dickleburgh is standing in a field that has just been plowed for Spring planting.

Nothing like a bit of of history sitting in a field that you pass every day to nudge your memory into recalling what went on there a mere 75 years ago.

 

 

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France, like England, is full of war memorials that list the dead from World War I or World War II. Frequently these consist of a simple cross with an engraved plaque filled with names.

The World War I monument in St. Girons, Midi-Pyrenees, France is a more elaborate monument though and the sculpture is quite poignant in its portrayal of grief and loss.
 

 

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Rambling up to the northwest of Normandy a few days ago — another area with World War II bunkers still embedded into the hillsides — we drove to the historic Cap de Hague and could see some of the Channel Islands (British territory) off on the left through the haze. This particular part of Normandy has seen battles and shipwrecks over the centuries that included the 1689 Battle of Barfleur and the more recent Battle of Cherbourg during World War II.
 

 
Leaving the car with an apple in one one hand and two cameras slung over my shoulders, I walked out to the furthest point where a small lighthouse sat guard in the choppy waters beyond and a war memorial from World War I faced the sea with its inscription on the waterfront side.
 

 
But to see an equally beautiful view, I simply had to swing around and look behind me. The tiny-tiny town of Goury with its gray stone buildings and stone-bordered fields rose behind me.

We walked the short distance into the wee village and discovered a small and lovely harbour with bright coloured boats bobbing in the dark blue water.
 

 
I simply had to include the photo below of the ‘Bored Parisienne’ because she made me laugh so much. They arrived in a black Audi that bore a tiny Paris dealer sticker and a license plate ending in 75 indicating that they had driven north from Paris and they parked a few spots away from us in the parking lot for ‘les visiteurs.’ As she swished out of the car with her coat swirling around her legs and flounced down to the water’s edge at the harbour, her husband darted about with his camera taking photo after photo of the pretty boats. The woman who had emerged from the black car was impatiently stomping back and forth in her leather pumps and could not have looked more bored if she had tried. She finally stood on the boat ramp with one hand on her hip, gazing back and forth, but her face was totally devoid of any signs of interest — a stark contrast to her eager-beaver photo-snapping husband.
 

 

Just love those little slices of life!
 

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The full-sized airplane hanging from the ceiling was an unexpected surprise in a place entitled the Caen Peace Memorial, but that was indeed the first thing that we saw as we entered the spacious entrance lobby.

This World War II plane, along with several tanks in one wing of the museum, are amongst the sprinkling of ‘hardware’ that accompany the more thought-provoking displays. This is a serious history museum and one that needs to be explored slowly. We hadn’t realised quite how comprehensive the before, during, between, and after the world wars examination would be.
 

 

It’s hard to conceive of how fraught with anxiety every day to day activity would have been under the German occupation or with bombs dropping on your home or workplace. We can try to imagine it fully, but that state of imagining would be simply inadequate.
 

 

There is nothing playful about this museum, but you will certainly leave here with a greater understanding of the social and political factors that led to both of the World Wars in Europe.

There is a decent cafe and a quite a nice bookstore and gift shop within the museum, so there is probably something for everyone. I highly recommend a full day out here.
 

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The wind whipped the flags behind us and the gusts were so strong that I was compelled to lean against any available building or post when I had a chance. But the sky was gloriously layered as Mark strode between the metal blades of the sculpture and the beauty of it all took my breath away.

Les Braves is not the usual type of memorial that one sees on battlefields. It is a soaring piece of contemporary art that was commemorated in 2004 at the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy during World War II. The French government commissioned this magnificent piece created by the woman sculptor Anilore Banon.
 

 
We were fortunate to be there when the tide was out enough to walk around. But as you can see from the video on Banon’s site, the monument is surrounded by water when the tide is high and that too is quite a dramatic sight.

I have intentionally used a smaller version of the image so that you can click on the photo and EXPAND it to see the stunning beauty of that place, the somber moodiness that the weather created, and most of all, to take in the striking work of art against the sea and the sand.

To me it appears to be a glistening collection of swords impaled in those previously bloody sands, hilts buried in the beach and blade ends rising heavenward. But they also have the appearance of very contemporary and glowing angel wings. I suppose that it is up to each of us to interpret it according to our own personal vision and response.

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Today’s Washington Post contains an article stating that 45,000 residents of Koblenz are being evacuated from their homes as bomb disposal squads disarm one massive unexploded bomb lying alongside another, smaller unexploded bomb. Both of these war time relics were recently discovered wedged in the banks of the Rhine River when the waterline fell to a record low level.

Several months ago, we were walking through suburban Hannover when we spotted this van in the street. Since Germany was so heavily bombed by the allies during World War II, bomb inspection units still need to be called when any excavation is planned for utilities such as water lines or gas lines. And one friend in Germany told us that the basements of houses in Germany are never built until the area has been certified bomb free.
 

 

I’ve mentioned in past articles that World War II is still a living, breathing fact-of-life here in Europe and friends have frequently had their own episodes of discovering remnants of that war in their own back gardens or in the walls of their homes as they began renovations. Today’s Washington Post article just reminds us yet again that the actions of our predecessors generations ago still echo solidly through our contemporary time period. Although we might be temporarily inconvenienced, it is barely fathomable in our present mindset to even try and imagine what it would be like to live a day to day life with bombs dropping on our heads.

Our parents’ and grandparents’ generations would have known those sensations of impermanence quite intimately.

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Here’s another example of the vintage posters from World War II that are on display at the Caen Memorial Museum in Normandy, France.
 

 
This strikingly diagonal 3 person image from 1943 summoned up a spirit of patriotism and reminded the Canadian public that the war was fought on the home front as well as the front lines of the battlegrounds.

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