Normandy sand (2 Viewers)

[sammy719]

After many years of trying to locate all 5 beach sand from the Landing beaches at Normandy I was finally able to find Gold, Sword and Juno beach sand, I have Omaha and Utah so I'm beyond excited to have all 5 in a collection!!! Also located was a small bottle of Omaha sand with a partial piece of a Normandy Parachute. Once I get everything in place I'll post a picture.

 

[sammy719]

 

[Combat]

That is very cool. When I was out west this summer at the Crazy Horse monument in South Dakota they were giving away pieces of rock chipped off in the making of the monument. I brought home a couple of them. My wife thought I was crazy but it made for a great souvenir and you can't beat the price of rocks. Free. I added one to my display with a couple of toy soldier Indians.

 

[sammy719]

That is very cool. When I was out west this summer at the Crazy Horse monument in South Dakota they were giving away pieces of rock chipped off in the making of the monument. I brought home a couple of them. My wife thought I was crazy but it made for a great souvenir and you can't beat the price of rocks. Free. I added one to my display with a couple of toy soldier Indians.

That is awesome!!! I find it very cool to have a piece of history !!! Maybe just sand or rocks in your case but still the same a part of actual history is very special to me.

 

[jazzeum]

When I was there many years ago I picked up some rocks but never thought to pick up sand.

 

[Warrior]

When I was there many years ago I picked up some rocks but never thought to pick up sand.

The whole sand thing is a little too personal for my taste.................I keep thinking back to the scene from SPR when the camera pans down to Omaha Beach and you see all the bodies rolling back and forth with the tide and the water is red with blood...................I always view that sand as blood soaked and that beach paid for by all the sacrifices those kids made.

Once and awhile while at the Gettysburg battlefield I think about picking up a stone here or there, but then again I think about how over 50,000 Americans died there, that battlefield is one giant cemetery.

 

[sammy719]

The whole sand thing is a little too personal for my taste.................I keep thinking back to the scene from SPR when the camera pans down to Omaha Beach and you see all the bodies rolling back and forth with the tide and the water is red with blood...................I always view that sand as blood soaked and that beach paid for by all the sacrifices those kids made.

Once and awhile while at the Gettysburg battlefield I think about picking up a stone here or there, but then again I think about how over 50,000 Americans died there, that battlefield is one giant cemetery.

I understand your point of view. Where as some people say it's just dirt, rocks, wood etc. It still a part of history and even having just a small part of it no matter how insignificant some might think of it, it gives me a feeling of a connection to those battles fought many a year ago.

 

[Barkmann]

I am lucky enough to be able to visit Normandy annually [before COVID], as i am 7.5 hours away [3 hours driving, rest on the ferry] door to door from my house to the place i stay when there. I have not brought any sand back, but i did bring back some rusted bits of equipment which a local farmer gave me, one a rusted barrel, from front to just past the trigger guard, of an MG42, which i gave to a fellow collector for a milestone birthday.

I have below, it a brick from the outer wall of Hougoumont Farm, i was visiting and 2 guys were repairing the wall and i asked if i may take some that were not going to be reused, they said OK, I did make them both a cup of coffee and share a brew and a few M & S chocolate biscuits, as i had my camp stove with me in the car, which i think gained favour with them and in return i got three lead musket balls they had found when taking part of the wall down. I took a dozen bricks and gave them out to collector friends who collect Napoleonic toy soldiers, but kept a couple.

 

[jazzeum]

The whole sand thing is a little too personal for my taste.................I keep thinking back to the scene from SPR when the camera pans down to Omaha Beach and you see all the bodies rolling back and forth with the tide and the water is red with blood...................I always view that sand as blood soaked and that beach paid for by all the sacrifices those kids made.

Once and awhile while at the Gettysburg battlefield I think about picking up a stone here or there, but then again I think about how over 50,000 Americans died there, that battlefield is one giant cemetery.

The beaches are now very peaceful. To look on them you’d think you’re looking at any other beach. It’s a testament to 76 years of peace in most of Europe.

I was looking for my rocks but couldn’t find them. I’m afraid they may have gotten mixed in with relics of battles of the Spanish Civil War. In the end sand is just sand and rocks are just rocks. It’s the symbolism with which we invest them that makes them different.

 

[Barkmann]

The whole sand thing is a little too personal for my taste.................I keep thinking back to the scene from SPR when the camera pans down to Omaha Beach and you see all the bodies rolling back and forth with the tide and the water is red with blood...................I always view that sand as blood soaked and that beach paid for by all the sacrifices those kids made.

Once and awhile while at the Gettysburg battlefield I think about picking up a stone here or there, but then again I think about how over 50,000 Americans died there, that battlefield is one giant cemetery.

I see your point of view, but the beach is different today from June 6th 1944. For example if you go to Bunker WN65 and look out across the beach, there are whole dunes over 12ftt high which were not there in June 1944, there are shellfish fishermen in tractors dragging ploughing equipment across the sand to bring up the shellfish. However, i think the point is symbolic, that place offers us all a symbolic thing which shows our emotions and feelings, by taking the sand the people that do have a symbol with them.

I remember, many years ago, speaking to a gardner at the cemetry above Omaha Beach, he was the person incharge of working on individual requests and he said there has been thousands of requsts for soil from individual graves for relatives and muesums back in the US, they had specifically make small containers for the soil, which had a small plate with the name of the soldier on them, plus a picture of the gardner taking the soil, just 2 - 3 spoonfuls, and another of the grave. Plus they also take flowers and cuttings from any flowers on the grave and send it as well, pressed flat. Once again these are a symbol for people, who lost a male relative and they have something which links them they can look at and touch.

Therefore I can see both point of views.