Dog Green Sector, Omaha Beach, June 1944

spanner570

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Hi Neill, I know it's off thread, but I am enjoying our exchanges, so just briefly....

There are mostly USAAF crew buried at Cambridge, most of the others died in N.Africa and France as well as training areas in England and the waters of the Atlantic. I wonder if the training deaths had anything to do with that incident on the S.Coast when hundreds of U.S Infantry were killed during a practice landing for D.Day when some German E. boats got amongst them?

When I was at the cemetery, I was looking along the Massive M.I.A. wall containing the 5,000 odd names, when I spotted half a dozen names with a small bronze asterisk next to the names. All on the same date in 1944.

I asked the American Officer in the cemetery office what they were, he didn't know!! I looked it up on the internet and it turns out that the names belong to the crew of a Liberator bomber which crashed in dense woods in Germany and was not found until the mid 90's. So the asterisk is for those identified after being declared M.I.A.

I have heard good things about Leger Tours, unfortunately my son and I are the sort of people who like to mooch around off the subscribed routes and go where and when we like and be away from people. Sounds anti social, but I hope you know what I mean!

Thanks for the very informative post,

Ron
 
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stona

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You chaps may be "off thread" but I for one am finding it quite an education which must be a good thing! Keep it up I say.

Cheers

Steve
 

spanner570

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A bit of a progress report:-

The figures are completed so I can now concentrate on the beach. I have finished the large log obstacles and here is one of the 'Czech Hedgehogs' painted, but not weathered. I had intended to scratch build these but I found I could get a 1/35 kit of them...so I did!

That is more or less it for the obstacles, except for a couple of other things, such as the single logs dug in at an angle with a Teller mine on the top of some of them.

The more I get involved in this the more it comes home just what a horrendous place Dog Green must have been. Yes, I know all beaches suffered to some degree, but here so much life was extinguished in minutes.....

Ron

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Omaha Beach 018.jpg
 

spanner570

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Warm enough for a short time in the shed.

Lots to build for this yet, but I couldn't resist a 'Play' in the sand with what little I have completed.

I've had a go at trying to replicate Capa's famous blurred images of the landings.....I was only messing about, but I'm chuffed to bits with how the snap came out.

What do you folks think?

Cheers,

Ron

View attachment 30345

Omaha Beach 019.jpg
 

AlanG

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Looks great to me Ron
 
R

rogue-one

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that is quite affective! a few explosions going on would look good. you should defo do a few of these fliks when it's all finished.
 

tr1ckey66

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Great stuff Ron, I can hear ping of the bullets ringing off the beach obstacle now.

Cheers

P
 

spanner570

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Thanks fellas for the comments, this last pickie was a bit of an experiment really, bit of a way to go yet.

Good suggestion Bobby, but I just couldn't even attempt explosions, also because most of the casualties were caused by machine gun fire, I will stick to that and see what I can sort out along those lines.

Cheers,

Ron
 

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It is worth remembering that the explosives attached to the obstacles were mainly conventional land mines of various types, or contact fused artillery shells. There was no special waterproofing which meant that the salt water corroded the innards making them either useless or very exciting for the bomb disposal boys.

Not a job I would have fancied at the time!

Peter
 
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Neill

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Hi again Ron

Shes looking pretty good Ron. Keep up the good work.

It was off thread indeed but very interesting to hear about the history of your area. I will not go off on one again but I was amazed to learn that someone from my town (Dundonald on the outskirts of Belfast) was buried in Osterbeek cemetry near Arnhem when I was on the Leger tour. There were a few VC headstones in that graveyard Ron. Makes you very proud of what our fore fathers did to fight the evil of facism. On the modelling front, as you can tell by the number of my posts, am only new to the whole tank,plane and diorama thing. In fact I only started a Tamiya "Stuka Zu Fuss" half track and had to move on from it to a Tamiya Focke Wulf 1/72 which I still havent even built after I was bought it at Christmas. I havent even painted anything or used the airbrush I purchased in November last year!! I think I need to get the finger out and get moving. My main problem is whether to airbrush in the house as my garage isnt very warm but I don't want acrylic/enamel being blasted into the air for the girlfriend to breathe in.
 

spanner570

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Thanks for the positive comments on my experimental 'Action photo' boys. Also thanks to Peter for yet more info. on Omaha. Great stuff, thanks.

The diorama is coming along nicely. Apart from remodelling the figures, the actual build (Being only the obstacles) has been surprisingly straight forward and I have all the elements done now, so the next bit is putting them all together in some sort of composition on the sand, which I know will be difficult ..Then standing back and give it big looks and thoughts...

I was going to post progress, but there isn't any really. I have posted the sand, obstacles and figures so there really is nothing else to report until the finished job.

Thanks again for the interesting post Neill, what an amazing find in Osterbeek.

I don't need to worry about killing the wife with fumes, I only brush paint my models!

Cheers,

Ron
 
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spanner570

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Hi all, I have now completed this diorama for the Jan/March G.B., it is also a present for my son. He loves going to Normandy and in particular Omaha Beach so I hope he likes this little gift....

Thanks for the posts during the construction, I really do appreciate them and I have learned a lot more about the subject matter!

Here is a colour picture of part of the finished Diorama.

The others are in the Group build 'Completed' section. Or will be as soon as I can load them. I will also explain briefly how I built the dio.

Thanks,

Ron

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Omaha Beach 022.jpg
 
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yak face

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Ron you little tease! Hurry up with the rest , if this brilliant little taster is anything to go on itll be a triumph matey , cheers tony
 
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