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Newly graduated from medical school, Martial Jardel set off on a five-month road trip to help out in areas of France suffering from a shortage of physicians.

Fortification The Maginot Line and the West Wall In the interval between world wars, several European countries built elaborate permanent fortifications. The largest was the French Maginot Line, a system of mammoth, self-contained forts stretching from Switzerland to the vicinity of the Belgian frontier near Montmédy. The reinforced concrete of the forts was thicker than any theretofore used, the disappearing guns bigger and more heavily armoured. Ditches, embedded steel beams, and minefields guarded against tank attack. A large part of the works were completely undergrou...

Jennifer Zoebelein of Charlotte County History Services Memorial Day, the honoring of those who have died in the nation’s wars, dates to the Civil War, when it was common for women to decorate the graves of fallen soldiers. In 1868, at the behest of the Grand Army of the Republic, a Union Civil War veterans’ organization, May 30 was designated a nationwide day of remembrance, though southern states continued to honor their dead separately until after World War I. Over time, Decoration Day became Memorial Day, and its meaning shifted to include fallen soldiers from all wars. In 1968,...

Spectacular images superimposed onto modern day scenes for a new book titled 'Ghosts of Normandy' Black and white landing ships speed towards Omaha Beach as it appears today, tanks roll through Bayeux  Other images shows the ruins of Montebourg - which fell on June 19, 1944, after intensive bombing Another picture shows a warship being refuelled at the Port-en-Bessin, in contrast to fishing harbour of today 

What It Took to Win While Storming Utah Beach During D-Day Taking this particular beach was allegedly easier than the others, although that word does not describe the terrible cost of running ashore against enemy fire. In the weeks leading up to the still-undefined D-Day, commanders argued about every detail of Operation Overlord. Sometimes, the arguments grew contentious. In one, just a few weeks before the Normandy invasion was launched, British Air Chief Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory, under whose aegis the airborne forces would operate, got cold feet and told Lt. Gen. Omar Bradley, comm...