blog stats


ImagesOfTheJourney > Shadows Taking Flight
ImagesOfTheJourney > Juno Beach peaceful now but at times you can feel the "power of place" that all travellers have felt when they least expect it.
ImagesOfTheJourney > Juno Beach
Time seemed suspended. I had an uncanny feeling I had been here before. I walked the beach, watching as the tide took the water half a kilometre out. This beach was so familiar; but nothing beyond it. At some point I turned and walked back towards the houses lining the beach, some looking just like they had prior to the invasion.

The beach storage houses are a modern addition... you can rent one for the summer.
ImagesOfTheJourney > Autumn Glory

This is a rift in the Niagara Escarpment (a geologic feature left behind by the retreating glaciers about ten thousand years ago) It is somewhere north of Toronto Ontario Canada, probably Mono Cliffs in the Caledon area. 

This aerial photograph was taken from a single engine light plane about 30 minutes after the dawn of an October morning when the trees were at the height of their autumn color display. Our altitude was probably about 900 m.
ImagesOfTheJourney > This is the Canadian Cemetery at Juno Beach. Canadians provided 1 in 5 of all the troops landed on D-Day.  As you can see many did not live through the assault and subsequent fighting.
ImagesOfTheJourney > View of Dieppe beach from the German gun positions. The truth is that Stalin was threatening to sue for peace with Hitler on the verge of taking Moscow, Stalingrad, and Leningrad. 
Not only that but Roosevelt did not like Churchill's plan to go to North Africa first. He wanted to take on Hitler in France right away. 

Churchill gave Mountbatten the job of mounting a mini invasion.... AND PROVE IT COULD NOT BE DONE YET.  (source Gen. Denis Whitaker in his book Dieppe Tragedy to Triumph) 

So the bombing of the guns by Bomber Harris was called off at the last minute, no battle ship was sent to provide fire support and the Canadians were slaughtered.
ImagesOfTheJourney > I felt an impossible yearning, to have been there, to have fought evil, at a time before ambiguity,
when "They" were bad and "We" were good.  The last "righteous war." One that we had to be fought as the consequences of not joining in the conflict  was too  devastating to comprehend. 

I have since come to understand that it is that dichotomy that fuels all wars. It is often express religiously... that God is on our side, or that it is God's will that we fight and kill the evildoers. 

I realise now that I was yearning to have a sense of meaning that is one of wars most addictive and seductive traits.
ImagesOfTheJourney > Batterie du Longues
ImagesOfTheJourney > La Maison du Queen's Own Rifles 
One of the houses that survived the invasion.

You will often see this house in footage of old WW2 film of the landings of D-Day. There it is seen just as the Landing Crafts front door open and machine gun fire cuts down a number of men.
Juno Beach
Time seemed suspended. I had an uncanny feeling I had been here before. I walked the beach, watching as the tide took the water half a kilometre out. This beach was so familiar; but nothing beyond it. At some point I turned and walked back towards the houses lining the beach, some looking just like they had prior to the invasion.

The beach storage houses are a modern addition... you can rent one for the summer.
ImagesOfTheJourney > Juno Beach
Time seemed suspended. I had an uncanny feeling I had been here before. I walked the beach, watching as the tide took the water half a kilometre out. This beach was so familiar; but nothing beyond it. At some point I turned and walked back towards the houses lining the beach, some looking just like they had prior to the invasion.

The beach storage houses are a modern addition... you can rent one for the summer.
Juno Beach
Time seemed suspended. I had an uncanny feeling I had been here before. I walked the beach, watching as the tide took the water half a kilometre out. This beach was so familiar; but nothing beyond it. At some point I turned and walked back towards the houses lining the beach, some looking just like they had prior to the invasion.

The beach storage houses are a modern addition... you can rent one for the summer.
See photo in gallery

Comments

|

New comment:

Name:
To foil spammers, enter this code: copy this text in this box: Code unreadable?

This site and my photography business have developed from a passion for wonder, for wandering and for story telling. In the past few years I have traveled to more than 700 cities and places in pursuit of wonders from which come my stories and photographs.(see below)

I primarily sell photographs for office, model suites, or home decor, Many images are serenely beautiful and will enhance the atmosphere of any room. Most of our sales are in the home decorating business and to people who want high quality photographs that capture the essence of exotic travel destinations. I also sell photo gifts (t-shirts, mugs, etc.). We are located about 20km (12mi) NW of the Toronto International Airport in the city of Brampton.
Travel journalism to promote tourist destinations as well as political or commercial events (no weddings), poker tournaments, parties etc. Images or stories on this site may not be used for personal or commercial use without written permission or purchase from this site.
NOTE Many charitable or non profit organizations (NGOs) will be eligible to use these photos, or my services for NO FEE (expenses only) Contact me at david@imagesofthejourney.com or 416-890-0740.

copyright 1996-2007 David Cale [Images Of The Journey Photography] All Rights Reserved