Battles and Warfare Archives - Page 4 of 4

There were no smiles as they passed us and all four of them concentrated deeply on the task at hand. They took themselves quite seriously, these local Frenchmen of a 20-something age.

Garbed in pseudo-medieval clothing, faces dabbed with fake blood, and carrying handmade arrows, they positioned themselves outside of the somber gray walls of the fortified castle in Fougeres in Brittany. Again and again they shot those arrows into the sky and then shouted unintelligible phrases whilst one of their companions filmed it all on a tiny hand-held movie camera.

If you look carefully you can see that the man on the left has just shot a blue-fringed arrow into the air above his head.

Archers outside the walls of the fortified medieval chateau at Fougeres in Britanny, northern France

They could have been actors or they could have been what they call in the USA re-enactors — well organised groups of enthusiasts of a particular time period who spend large amounts of free time re-enacting past events. Then again, they could have simply been four local lads who longed to live in a time long gone which is easily summoned up by the atmosphere of this fortress-chateau.

Normandy in Northern France — site of some of the bloodiest battles of World War II including the D-Day Landings. To this day the local population still honours those lost young men and also the lucky ones that returned home.

One of the most ferocious campaigns took place in a French town called Mortain and the Germans called this offensive campaign Operation Lüttich. We are currently living a mere 12 kilometres from there.

Last week was the anniversary of the D-Day Landings by the Allied forces. The poignant painting below, surrounded by genuine artifacts of the war, was seen in the window of a local gallery on the main street of the now peaceful Mortain.

Remembering the valiant military and civilian forces who defended France in World War II

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Category Archives: Battles and Warfare

Photo Of The Day: Living In The Past

Remembering The Valiant in Normandy, France