My approach to montages is that the World War II-era photo will be resized and rotated in entirety to match the modern photo. There is no cut-and-paste, stretching or other modification allowed except for adjusting things like brightness for the entire vintage photo. The result is laid over my modern version (bottom middle of each page) and then portions are erased to create the montage in both black & white (bottom right) and color.
The planned beach names of Goldfish, Swordfish and Jellyfish were abbreviated to Gold, Sword and Jelly. Winston Churchill was unhappy with Jelly, believing that it was inappropriate for a place where so many might die. He therefore changed Jelly to Juno. The pictured house is one of the first in France liberated by soldiers coming from the beaches on D-Day (as opposed to paratroopers and glidermen who landed earlier), and appears in several documentary clips such as this one:
Accounts vary slightly, but all agree that the Panther approached the Canadians near midnight on D-Day. Rifleman Joe Lapointe fired his PIAT and hit the side of the tank from close range (perhaps 45 feet). It continued on, and he fired again. The Panther ran into a string of antitank grenades, damaging the right track and catching on fire. When the crew bailed out, the Regina Rifles shot them. A second Panther withdrew, perhaps after accidentally hitting its fellow tank.
See Zuehlke, Mark. The Juno Beach Trilogy: First Canadian Army and the Normandy Campaign, June 6th - August 21, 1944 (Kindle Locations 10684-10696). Douglas and McIntyre (2013) Ltd.. Kindle Edition.
The 327 Glider Infantry Regiment captured Brévands on June 10 and then headed towards Carentan. Look closely to spot the silhouette of Jeff Brewster at the back of the church to the left of the soldiers. They didn't notice him.
The image came from a June 24, 1944 film that includes audio of Cole describing the action:
Episode 2 of Band of Brothers shows Easy Company attacking towards the Cafe de Normandie from the road to the left of picture. They turned left and began clearing buildings down the street shown in the image. Soon after, Ed Tipper was wounded inside a building in the movie. Actually, he was just outside the doorway when the mortar exploded. The movie shows his left eye destroyed; in reality, he lost his right eye.
Elements of the 327 Glider Regiment came ashore by ship on June 6, and additional units landed by glider on June 7. Along with the 501 and 506 Parachute Infantry Regiments, they captured Carentan after fighting June 10 through 12. Craig Lankford appears to have just finished interviewing them.
The Église Saint-Clair et Saint-Martin had the top of its tower blasted off, but was still a better landmark than "go left at the flower shop sign." The tanks seen here are turning to the south, perhaps coming from landing at the Mulberry harbors to the north-east. One highway sign points to Saint-Martin-des-Besaces (page 27).
The Canadians and British realized that bicycles could be handy modes of transportation after coming shore, although it seems that shrapnel would be a major puncture hazard. I'm especially proud of the dirt clumps behind the Bren carrier on the far right. I worked hard to make them look natural on the paved road!
Much of the German armor was on the west side of the Merderet River, and since the Germans had flooded this area, the causeway to the bridge at La Fiére became vital to the defense of Utah Beach, and then to the surge into the peninsula.
The 82nd Airborne was tasked with taking the bridge, an inspiration for the final scene in Saving Private Ryan. Despite days of brutal fighting and terrible losses, the Germans never got across the bridge. A movie about La Fiére called No Better Place to Die is in development.
Eight members of Easy Company fought here on D-Day. Ed Tipper told me that at one point he thought they might not get out alive, as the Germans kept counter-attacking them and they were getting very low on ammunition. However, it all turned out for the best, and many years later he discovered that the site was more important to the Germans in the battle for the Utah Beach area than they had realized at the time they were fighting. Apparently it was a supply station of sorts.
Forrest Guth was one the real characters of Easy Company, famous for sewing extra pockets on his uniform to haul more items, modifying M-1 Garands for fully automatic use, and defying orders to get amazing photographs that have come to us across time.
What were these ladies thinking as the Americans marched past their home? They'd been under German rule for four years; were these collaborators with the Nazis, supporters of the French resistance, or just survivors getting by? No matter what, their world was about to change. Can you spot the French flag at the back of the building?
When Jeff sat down on the edge of the bunker, it wasn't obvious how well that would work with the rubble in the 1944 photo. Don't miss the soldier in the darkness of the middle. The devastation from bombing and naval shelling on the bunkers of Pointe-du-Hoc make it look like a giant played with multi-ton slabs of concrete, throwing them around the landscape.
Brutal fighting in Pont-l'Évêque left much of the picturesque town in ruins. The Saint-Michel church suffered some damage as well, but aligned nicely for the montage. The new Auberge (hostel) "La Touques" resulted in the rather interesting effect of troops marching through the window.
I was born 40 miles from Winnipeg, so I was fascinated to learn about the Ft. Garry Horse and their involvement in Normandy. Mark Zuehlke has the best information about Canada's contributions to D-Day and the following conflict in his comprehensive The Juno Beach Trilogy: First Canadian Army and the Normandy Campaign, June 6th - August 21, 1944. Douglas and McIntyre (2013) Ltd.
Ron from our tour is checking both ways for Nazis before crossing the street. The fair-haired Gert Krieger cleaning the horrible mess was just a teenager, but probably a devoted Nazi since he was in the SS. The first time I planned to take photos here I had bad GPS coordinates and had to wait another year to return to Rots and locate the spot. It was worth the wait!
Rots is the only town besides Carentan that managed three appearances in this book. Obviously this photo is just up the street at a slightly different angle from Page 20, as you can spot the sliding door in both montages.
The first time I spotted this 1944 photo, the picture quality was too low to use. Later, I found one with much better resolution and decided to create a montage. After that, I found the information about pilot John Weese, who sadly did not survive.
Despite the bad play on A Bridge Too Far in the title, this montage is one of my favorites, even though I'm in it. I've always enjoyed stopping at this spot because of the bridge's beauty, the memorials, and the history. Note the house at the middle of the background; its chimney and wall were the basis for aligning the photos. Here's the bridge from the south-eastern shore:
A great book called Death Traps by Belton Y. Cooper gives a detailed account of the work done at Saint-Jean-de-Daye as shifts of welders worked non-stop for a couple of days to prepare the rhino tanks for breaking through the bocage. I found a YouTube video showing the welding, and at the 3:39 mark you can recognize the buildings from my montage:
In case you didn't notice, this is the cover photo. I used the black & white montage there because of how well the wall blends from old to new. I’ve found online claims that the original photo was taken in Carentan, and that it was taken in Sainte-Mère-Église; those are obviously wrong since the scene matches perfectly with the church in Saint-Marcouf. And while the soldiers appear to be 82nd Airborne, I’ve found claims that they were from the Headquarters Company of the 508, and that they were from the 505 Regimental Combat Team. In the latter case, the soldier facing the camera is supposedly a Tom Blakey. Unlikely. The more believable information in my opinion is what I used in the book, identifying the soldier looking at the camera as a Donald MacLeod.
After leaving Marmion Farm, the Easy Company guys (506 Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne) from Band of Brothers traveled down to their meeting place in Sainte-Marie-du-Mont. Ed Tipper told me that he walked with Campbell Smith (far right of the photo), but I never got to ask Ed why he's not in this photo. Walter "Smokey" Gordon snapped the picture with Rod Strohl's camera (on loan to Forrest Guth), so other than John Eubanks (who left earlier), Ed is the only Easy Company soldier who fought at Marmion not here. The three back row soldiers from the 4th Division hiked up from Utah Beach.
Hotel Rivey has become Hotel Leroyer, but apparently they just painted over the same ancient sign. The people getting out of their car on the far right are going to be very surprised when they look up and see that Loyd Carrier coming around the corner.
This photo is from 1962, not 1944, but the building next to the street in front of the church (behind the German truck) was there in pictures from both eras. It was torn down somewhere between then and now. The retaining wall behind the Nazi soldier has been drastically reduced as well.
My slightly warped humor is in the title. This might be my best montage shot from 2015, when I asked my friend Jon to take the photo and I couldn't believe how perfectly the kids hanging out the window lined up right above the All-American Uncle Sam sign as the sole French tank passed through town. I redid the montage for the book, and it's still one of my favorites. Notice the hole in the roof of the building behind the tank.