D Day beaches

[Pat Carry]

With the 70th anniversary upon us, I have been wondering if there are unexploded/undetected mines still buried in the bluffs along the beaches? Also, with so much equipment being dropped by soldiers in the water and in the sand as the battle raged, is there active relic hunting at low tide along the beaches today? With so much equipment being lost from M-1's to radios to bazookas to you name it, I would figure there still must be objects buried in the sand all these years later.

[Mark Allen M]

I'd say your lucky if you found anything ...

[Pat Carry]

Mark, I have always thought this particular photo epitomizes "the arsenal of democracy"!

[cooper9411]

Hey Pat, allegedly after the war the beaches and bluffs were completely cleared of any/all relics. I'm not much of a betting man but if was I'd bet that there is more than likely objects to be found.

[Iclo]

The beaches were widely cleared after the war, but time to time some thing comes up.
And very often unexploded amunitions are found and require the intervention of army's or civilian deminors.
In the 60's my fatcher was there watching the controlled explosion of a mine (or somethin in the Houlgate beach (not directly a landing beach of D-Day but very close)
Very often the amunition are damaged by their exposition in salt water, and the best solution is to detonate them directly on site.

[Snake45]

I think if one tried, one might find expended brass, shrapnel, things of that sort.

I doubt at this time anyone going to find a Luger, Garand, or MP40 under the sand.

[SaxMan]

I've seen the picture before...but without the airplanes. It looks like they may have been retouched in, and those appear to be B-25s, which outside of a special group of RAF B-25s carrying smoke generators, really took no part in the D-Day battle.

[yankeepapa]

we have seen last week on the French TV a film showing boats, submarine, DD sherman tanks still at the bottom of the sea some kilometres of the beaches. small parts have probably disappeared long-time ago, but ammunitions around the submerged wrecks are still dangerous.
there is a museum near CAEN showing wrecks collected in the sea.

yves

[Mark Allen M]

Yes indeed that photo is "doctored up" a bit.

As for artifacts being found on, and around, the Normandy D-Day beaches? (Not counting off the coast items still under water) Google searches show that items from the invasion are still being found, albeit small and insignificant items (as has been stated no weapons as such) but I would bet the hedgerow areas could perhaps hold some interesting artifacts still buried in certain places. I've been to the Normandy beaches and inland a few times and for me it's always been a very powerful experience. Two uncles KIA over there in January 1945 came through Normandy.

Being a History major, one thing that always seems to be proven time and again is that if you put a massive amount of humanity in one particular area (in this case Normandy) for any particular reason (in this case an invasion during a time of war) significant history will always be made.

The planning, scale, undertaking and sacrifice of the D-Day invasion is something that will never (hopefully) be matched again. As an overview far too much of the world suffered tremendously because of the Second World War and depending on where you go in the world today, you will still see and feel the effects and results of the war. The Normandy area is a good example of this.

There are thousands of photos and film footage of the D-Day invasion online everywhere that give a good idea just what June 6th 1944 (and the weeks and months that followed) was all about, but it only takes one photo of someone's son lying face down in the sand to truly portray the ultimate sacrifice many gave to stamp D-Day as such a significant event in history.

May they all rest in peace

[shrike]

Link (and a link to a link if you can get it to work)
Higher res and less doctoring

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: ... e_1944.jpg

[p51]

Look up the Belgian town Ypres and all the issues they have with UXOs, after 100 years...

[Iclo]

Look up the Belgian town Ypres and all the issues they have with UXOs, after 100 years...

The area of "fixed" combat of WWI definitely contain more uxo, but the whole countries of Belgium, Netherlands and north of France are concerned.

Two week ago, the railways station just four kilometers away from my home, was closed for a few hours after the discovery of a set of unexploded amunition during an excavation.
As an major railway junction the whole area was heavely bombed during world war II with a lot of collateral damages and civilian casualties.

My hometown was 50% destroyed during the bombing of the second half of WWII. It let you imagine the total quantity of bomb dropped and with only a small percentage of unexploded one, that lets century to find them.

[John Dupre]

I read After The Battle magazine years ago about a local from Normandy with quite a collection of battlefield artifacts. These included a glass mine. The body of the mine was a large relatively shallow glass bowl with an opening narrower than the body. There was a thin wood cover with some kind of pressure sensitive detonator. There wasn't enough metal for the early detectors to pick up on. Never heard or saw anything else about them in 30 years since.