Jim's History Page

Bastogne by Don Stivers

Above is a painting of Patton's 3rd Army (specifically the Fifth Armored Division) marching in relief of the 101st Airborne Division at Bastogne.   This is one the greatest feats in all of World War 2 where the 3rd Army was heavily engaged in attacking the city of Metz. They stopped attacking and immediately went on the march through terrible weather to relieve the 101st Airborne. To the brave men of both the 101st and the Third Army, I honor and thank you.

My Interests

I love history (especially American History). I have a Masters in History and plan to one day get my Phd.

Normandy Tour 2007

In April 2007 I was able to spend a weekend in Normandy France. I toured the D-Day Beaches as well as Mont St Michel.

For more information, I highly recommend watching the movies The Longest Day & Saving Private Ryan

Here are the Pictures:

A Glider like the one used by the 101st & 82nd Airborne during the D-Day landings. Please note that these are made out of CANVAS and an Aluminum frame.

St. Marie Glise in Normandy. This is the town and place where a group of Paratroopers were dropped right in the middle of the trees at left and one guy was stuck on the belltower (see dummy and chute on tower above). He was the only one to survive by playing dead.

The Utah Beach Museum. Plus a Higgens landing craft in front. I didn't realize that just the ramp in front was metal. The sides are plywood !!

An M1 Sherman Tank at Utah Beach.

What a 16 inch Battleship Round will do. This at Pointe Du Hoc where the US Rangers had to climb the cliff and take out the guns there. This hole is from the preparatory bombardment.

The cliffs at Point Du Hoc and the US Ranger Memorial. The US Ranger had to scale these cliffs all while German troops fired down on them and threw grenades on their heads. It is amazing to me that they succeeded and took out these guns (which ended up not being there)

German Bunker at Point Du Hoc that supposedly contained the guns that the Rangers had to destroy. They ended up not being there after the Rangers climbed the hill and assaulted the bunker.

The infamous Omaha Beach. This was taken at the water line looking up the hill that the US troops had to assault. Ahead is the left Main bunker and to the right off of the picture is the right Main bunker.

Another shot of Omaha Beach. Look how wide this beach is !! US troops had to run without any cover all the way to the little sand lip on the left.

Where the pictures were taken on Omaha Beach.

Another shot of Omaha Beach. This is from the little sand lip where the US Engineers blew a hole in the wire looking up at the main German bunker.

The US Big Red One (US 1st Division) Omaha Memorial. On this are inscribed the thousands of men from the Big Red One who died on this beach.

The famous Normandy hedgerows.

Away from the D-Day beaches, here is a picture of the famous Mont St. Michel

At the top of Mont St. Michel (I never climbed so many stairs in my life)

On the street heading up in Mont St. Michel

And of course, I stopped by Stonehenge in England