GALLERY

Above left: TURQUEVILLE [2m SE of St. Mère Église] Wilbur H. Shanklin of HQ Co, 506 Para. Inf. faces a German (probably Georgian) prisoner, June 7, 1944. Shanklin is armed with regulation MI rifle, bayonet, grenades and M3 fighting knife. But he has also acquired a machete, a German bayonet, 2 German ‘potato-masher’ hand grenades, and a German canteen. He wears the ‘cricket’ brass identification spring-steel snapper (one click to be answered by a fellow 101st with two clicks), which was issued to 101 only (not 82nd). The Georgian Georgische Infanterie-Battalion 795 was deployed around Turqueville and along the ridge Turqueville / Fauville (across the N13) preventing US seaborne forces linking with 82nd Airborne in St. Mère Église. They fought well but were persuaded to surrender on D+1. Above right: Nicky Bird poses in the same place, July 2008. Photomontage by David Owens
ETAPLES CWGC CEMETERY, 2008. There are many beautiful and important WW1 CWGC cemeteries in France and Belgium - designed by distinguished British architects. Lijssenhoek, St. Symphorien and Tyne Cot for example. But Etaples, the largest in France, has a grandeur and dignity of its own. It is remarkable above all for the dramatic effect of Lutyens' landscaping, where the restrained entrance leads towards the Cross of Sacrifice silhouetted against the estuary sky, with the 11,000 graves invisible below. Then, as one rounds the Cross, the sudden vision of acres of white graves hits the visitor.
The dummy of Pvt. Steele, St. Mère Église, Normandy, who hung here the night of June 6, 1944	The beautiful Highland Cemetery, Le Cateau, visited on a bitterly cold morning by Tony Bird, Nicky Bird and Ernie Franklin in December 2007, as part of research for Tony's forthcoming book on the Battle of Le Cateau (1914) – to be published by Crowood Press
	St. Mère Église, Normandy – in 1944 and 2007 (Nicky Bird in doorway dodging snipers, H.H. Judge Peter Coulson covering)
The American Cemetery above OMAHA BEACH in 2007. The grave of Gen Roosevelt's brother, an airman killed in WW1, brought here to lie next to the general who led the assault on UTAH BEACH, and died of a heart attack a month after D-Day.	Tony and Nicky Bird, with Ernie Franklin and Brian Elvin behind, Longues Battery, Normandy, 2007
Anzac Cove, Gallipoli, 1915	Anzac Cove, Gallipoli, 2007. Nicky Bird, Dr. Philip Robson and Prof. John Richardson pose where the Anzacs stood
Hell Spit Cemetery, Anzac, Gallipoli, 2007, overlooking the Aegean Sea	Looking down on 'V' Beach, Gallipoli, where The Clyde beached, from a Turkish battery and (enfilading) trench
Lone Pine Cemetery, Gallipoli, 2007	Renee Robson at 'V' Beach Cemetery, 2007, with Turkish battery behind
Rupert Green and Nicky Bird (in 2006) by the Ramp at Auschwitz/Birkenau, where Dr. Mengele selected those for work or death	Nicky Bird poses in front of a ghostly Cross of Lorraine, the Memorial to General de Gaulle at Colombey-les-Deux Eglises, March 2007
'Arbeit Macht Frei' - the entrance gate to Auschwitz 1 in 2006.	Auschwitz/Birkenau in 2006, the main tower and entrance looking out

Nicky Bird (2006) by the wire at Auschwitz 1

Execution Wall, Auschwitz 1, 2006

Bird Battlefield Tours in Krakow, 2006. Rupert Green (l), Ernie Franklin, Renée Robson, Nicky Bird, Dodie Buchanan

Nicky Bird at the entrance to AUSCHWITZ / BIRKENAU [Auschwitz 2] in 2006

German gun at Belleau Wood, 2004

The British cemetery at Marfaux, between Reims and Epernay, 2004

Nicky Bird with Sten gun at Pol Roger, Epernay, Champagne, 2004	Christian de Billy, Proprietor of Pol Roger, entertains Bird Battlefield Tour guests at a wine tasting (their '14, '45 and '95 wines), 2004
Nicky Bird on Tiger 1 outside Vimoutiers, Normandy	Grand Place, Arras
Preserved trenches at Beaumont Hamel	Ypres, Menin Gate Memorial, the Monument to the Missing of the Salient, designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield and inaugurated by FM Plumer in 1927. It lists 54,896 officers and men killed between 1914 and August 15, 1917. [Photo October 2004]
Gheluvelt, Menin Road: the memorial where the windmill stood which marks the spot where the Worcesters and South Wales Borderers heroically closed the gap in the British line on October 31, 1914, during First Ypres, through which the Germans would have poured towards the unprepared defences of Ypres. Re-enactment enthusiasts pose, October 2004.	Menin Gate, Ypres: the 'Last Post' ceremony at 20.00. October 2004
Agincourt: where the English longbowmen wreaked havoc amongst the French. Photo taken on recent tour	Flers, Somme. The 41st. Div. memorial at dusk, October 2004.Ê The memorial is by the sculptor Albert Toft (1862-1949).Ê The same impressive bronze stands as the Royal Fusilier (City of London) memorial at Holborn in London.Ê A maquette can be seen at the Historial de la Grande Guerre in Peronne

Duxford: October 2004. Mustang and Spitfires

Duxford: October 2004. B17 taxing before take off

Bardney, Lincs. The control tower, taken in October 2004 on a tour of Lancaster Bomber Command WW2 bases, exactly 60 years after the last squadron (189 Sq.) left

Metheringham, Lincs. (Oct. 2004). Home in WW2 of 106 Sq., flying Lancs. This is the e/w runway now part of the B1189. You can drive around the abandoned Bomber Command base and zoom down the runway. There is a museum on the other side of the road run by a lady who owns the land and lived on the farm during the war, and remembers many of the crews of the 65 Lancasters that never returned.

La Boiselle, Lochnager mine crater, Somme. Rupert Green and Tony Bird (Oct. 2004) by the cross that stands on the lip of the huge crater, blown by the British on July 1, 1916. From here you can see almost the whole vista of the British attack — to Thiepval and beyond — on that disastrous day.

Tyne Cot British Military Cemetery and Memorial to the Missing, on the Passchendaele Ridge, Ypres: contains 11,908 graves and lists 34,888 'TO WHOM THE FORTUNE OF WAR DENIED THE KNOWN AND HONOURED BURIAL GIVEN TO THEIR COMRADES IN DEATH'. View towards Ypres, in Autumn sunshine (Oct. 2004), from Sir Reginald Blomfield's Cross of Sacrifice, built — at King George V's suggestion — on top of a German blockhouse.

Canadian Memorial at Vancouver Corner, Ypres Salient. The Memorial bears a plaque which states: 'THIS COLUMN MARKS THE BATTLEFIELD WHERE 18,000 CANADIANS ON THE BRITISH LEFT WITHSTOOD THE FIRST GERMAN GAS ATTACKS THE 22-24 APRIL 1915. 2000 FELL AND LIE BURIED NEARBY.'

The Just Jane - restored Lancaster at East Kirkby, Lincs., that gave us a ride around the peri track in June 05

Tony Bird in the cockpit of one of Duxford's B17s. During our tour of Bomber Command and 8th USAAF bases and museums (June 05) we also explored the interiors of two Lancs and a Sunderland, as well as flying over WW2 airfields in a vintage Rapide and light aircraft

Thorpe Abbotts: restored control tower (and museum)

Vimoutiers, Normandy 2003. Nicky Bird, Rupert Green and Dodie Buchanan on a Tiger Mk1 tank

LONGUES BATTERY, NORMANDY, 2007