Bonjour de Normandie! (Hello from Normandy!)

After a wonderful two days in the quaint, rainy countryside of Southern England I have successfully traversed the English Channel and landed in Normandy!

Some highlights so far:
-Littlecote House - HQ of the 506th PIR prior to Overlord. Amazing medevial manor with a ton of history involved. We sat in the room that was Col. Sink's office and met with a pair of lovely eldery English ladies who were 15 when all the American paratrooper boys were garrisoned in their town. They had a lot of great stories and told what it was like to live in England throughout the war. One of them recalled being woken up by her mother the night of June 5th, 1944 to see the armada of C-47's all towing gliders passing overhead. "Monica, this is history," her mother said to her. Real powerful stuff.

-Passed by a Royal Navy, naval yard on the way out of Portsmouth. Saw the HMS Invicible aircraft carrier and the HMS Victory, Admiral Nelson's ship from the Napoleanic era.

-Veterans galore! On the ferry from Portsmouth to Ouistriham there was a whole group of British Normandy veterans and a gentleman from the 82nd Airborne by the name of Ryan. Yes, that is a Private Ryan with the 82nd Airborne. Ring a bell? No, he was not the guy the movie was based off of, but he likes to tell everyone he is haha. He was a hell of a guy though. He actually landed on Omaha beach along with 200 other riflemen from the 82nd that were sent over to the 1st Infantry Division as replacements. He was wonded in the landing boat and spent the entier day (up the 10pm) lying on the waters edge. I also met an English chap who landed at Juno and met up with American 1st Divison to fight inland.

-Normandy so far has been pretty low key, just landed here a couple hours ago in the dark. What has amazed me is that I recongize all the town names and everything seems to be in reference to the invasion. Such as the hotel, which recognizes "Omaha Beach" as its location. Utah and the related areas are on deck tomorrow. Can't wait to check it out!

No real impressive photos so far, but stay with me and I promise I'll have some great stuff to look at in the coming days

In response to those who posted:
-Gezoes, the man I mentioned above from the 82nd actually personally knew John Steel
-Theta, you and the fort are pretty out of the way from where I'm going to be, but I'll be sure to send a toast your way when I'm in Belgium!
-EU, your area is beautiful! I had a great time in Hungerford and the surrounding countryside. Wonderful place. Congrats on the Queen's Jubilee also, it was pretty neat to see all that stuff going on in the UK.
-nvrsummer2, thanks so much for the tip on the monument! Hopefully we'll have the chance to visit it later in the day, after it has been dedicated on the 6th. At least that's the plan haha.
-Surfbird, yup I'm a proud Yank! I've also been tracking down any vet I can get ahold of for a talk haha. Very much looking forward to Germany as well!
-CPS, that's so awesome! If you see a guy with a faded Boston Red Sox baseball cap on come over and say hi!
-Harmonikater, we probably will see the Fuhrerbau when we're in Munich, and I'll check out what's there!

Sorry for the wall of text everyone! I'm just real excited to be here! In future posts I'll just hit ya with pictures

Yeah I never saw a Beaufighter with MGs/Cannons anywhere other than the nose

Absolutely glorious video though. The editing was phenomenal and the gameplay was insane! You should give some thought to maybe applying to do some official Mod vids, like the teasers or release promo ones. I know Azreal had posted that they were looking for a video guy here. Also, definitely share if you make anohter video

Stopping power:

Compare a .22 round and a .50 slug. You get hit in your left arm with the .22 and the .50 hits your right.

Results: Boo-boo on the left arm, your right arm is gone.

Obviously a generalization, and I'm sure noone used a .22 in WWII, but the amount of damage to human flesh that a round can inflict is a tangible thing.

Aussies have pretty cool hats too!

But yeah, the carbine was issues to soldiers who weren't neccessarily in the trenches on the front lines. They were designed to be easy to use so that someone could just pick one up and pop off a few rounds, even if they're not very well trained, essentially the folks Von Mudra outlined.

My uncle was the bombadier on that plane. He is still alive and 89 years old. He visited the crash site and the town about seven years ago. That was his 28th mission. They were hit on 13 other missions, but always made it home.

Awesome story! Small world...

Also Hetzer... that thing is too cute.

Hahaha I'm really glad someone else thinks that. I was looking at it on Meuse River and all I could think is "what an adorable little tank... 'You wanna go snipe some Shermans? OK, we'll go snipe some Shermans.'"

One weapon I think is underrated (at least by me) is the Grease Gun. I hated it for so long because whenever I came face to face with an MP40, he'd have 4-5 rounds in me before I can squeeze off 2. I've found that it works great as a medium range weapon though. The slow rate of fire really helps with aiming. I loved the FH1 Grease Gun for medium range also.

They resupply tanks as well. Drop the same ammo boxes that are available in the ammo kit.

Although it's a pretty awesome song, it would definitely kill the mood for me. I'd be thinking of dragons and the like rather than getting ready to deploy on a WWII battlefield.

Not a bad thought though!