----- Original Message -----
From: "Eugene Pantano" <snoshu@market1.com>
To: "Military Vehicles List" <mil-veh@skylee.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2000 11:57 PM
Subject: Re: [MV] HILL 112 Normandy
> Absolutely the best tribute possible..!Gene
>
It is.
Nigel has done an excellent job in putting the site on line in short order,
a visit to http://www.hill112.com is highly recommended.
The personal accounts of this desperate struggle are somewhat harrowing
though but here we find some real information about the difficulties of the
Normandy landings in areas not well publicised by the popular media.
The details of the fighting around Caen are a useful illustration of the
largely mis-understood overall plan to have the more numerous British and
Canadian forces contain the armour here and capture a deep-water port
leaving the US forces relatively unhindered make a sweep through the
Cotentin peninsular to finally link up. Hill 112 is an illustration of the
desperate shortcomings of allied armour too, well handled Panthers and
Tigers were seriously difficult to overcome, fortunately the small numbers
and often reliability played a part in their defeat.
This memorial is likely the last that will now be placed in France and we
can thank the diligent efforts of Albert Figg, who is definitely not a young
man now and one of the fast dwindling actual participants, we leave tomorrow
noon with two appropriate trucks in the shape of a F15 Polsten AA truck and
a Morris-Commercial PU8 wireless to attend and I am privileged to be an
invited passenger for the formal dedication.
Digital camera at the ready, I will lean on my good Aussie chum Doug
Greville to host a report on his Web Armour site at: http://Fast.to/DG in
the fullness of time.
Richard
Southampton - England
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Aug 07 2000 - 22:15:55 PDT