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Impressionists by the sea If you are in central London and want to see some wonderful art, I can recommend this. The ticket prices are a bit steep and the collection is not quite as big as some, but definitely worth it. It makes me want to get across the Channel and sip wine in a nice restaurant in Normandy or Brittany.
There is something strange about contemplating a peaceful scene on a Normandy beach, painted in say, 1870, to realise that 74 years later, the place was swarming with Allied troops slugging it out with the German Army, or what was left of it.
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Indeed, but despite the damage caused from WW2 it is often amazing to see these Normandy ports and realise that, architecturally, there is very little difference between how they look now and how they looked back in 1870.
“What was left of it?”…. The allies faced a depleted and vanquished army? Sure gonna be surprised to all of Europe that they were occupied by a depleted and all-but vanquished army… Dang-! Who Knew-!?!?
Howcome Montgomery had such a hard time with the remnant army with “Market Garden”… I realize that the Yanks were untrained, unprofessional, overpaid, overfed, over there and died by the thousands… But Howcome the well trained British forecs had such a hard time against remnant-rag-tag-depleted-vanquished foe-?
They also led a lot of Canadians who died fighting an all-but vanquished foe…
Did the Germans not know they were all-but defeated?
Maye someone should have told them so they could have surrendered…
I never knew Arnhem was in Normandy!
… I guess the Samizdatistas are all away due to the UK Bank Holiday today. What? You mean you actually have lives beyond blogging? Who knew?
Andyj, I might have saved your blood-pressure from rising dangerously had I spelled out that the German army had been depleted – as is undeniable – by the Russian campaign. When I said “what is left of it”, I did not play down the threat since quite a lot was “left”.
I actually agree with a lot of your points, but they are premised on a mis-reading of my post. Anyway, it was primarily about an art exhibition!
Hmm, someone does seem to have glossed over all those awful Normandy battles let alone the fact that some of Germany’s finest were pulled back from the Russian front to bolster the enormous Panzergruppen arrayed against British/American/Canadian/Polish and French forces in the Falaise battles, for example. Really wouldn’t have thought that tankers like Michael Wittman could be described as the remnant of a depleted and vanquished army