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War Stories
Battlefield Tours
Finding our Past
This is the story of my quest for family war stories
Normandy Defensive Installations
Introduction I had visited Normandy several times, so this time, I concentrated on major German Defensive installations along the Normandy coast that I had not previously seen. I also threw in the British Normandy memorial. They have a seasonal display called Standing with Giants and this was my first chance to visit while the display was present. British Normandy Memorial The Memorial Surprisingly, until recently there was no British Memorial in Normandy. On the 75th Anniver
pd-allen
1 day ago17 min read
John Scholte and The Dutch Princess Irene Brigade
My good friend Sandy Cyr’s grandfather Jan (John) Scholte served in the Dutch Princess Irene Brigade in WW2. The Irenes briefly served under the Second Canadian Corps so I took a look at their actions. Sandy was able to get John’s service records from the Dutch Army and Google Translate helped trace his story. During a recent long weekend, Rachel and I visited a number of museums in the Netherlands and took the opportunity to visit a few memorials to the Princess Irene Brigad
pd-allen
Jun 812 min read
Rimini Ravenna and Bologna
In addition to our battlefield and tiny country tours, we took the opportunity to explore the ancient cities of Rimini, Ravenna and Bologna during our visit to Italy. All of the cities have impressive structures that are thousands of years old. Rimini Rimini has been inhabited from ancient times but was created as a Roman city in 268 BC when 6,000 Romans were sent to Rimini to establish a base at the mouth of the Marecchia River to expand into the Po Valley. The beaches of
pd-allen
May 1411 min read
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