Hello all

Im doing some research for a diorama project im helping a friend on. The era is late 43/early 44 around the Caen area and the diorama will show units being deployed and preparing defences etc. The info im seeking help with is knowledge/images as per french buildings/cafes etc for the time and or the Caen area. Im finding lots of maps/battle info re DDay but not lots about the actual place. Can anyone help/suggest anything?

Thankyou in advance

Aaron

Ola Aron

I have some books that more or less completely are about the Atlantik wall and D-Day. There are some good pictures in there. Actually all the small towns, Villages and cities in that area look like each other. So if you find pics of a Small french town the features could easily be used in a Normandie coastal setting.
Also keep in mind that almost the complete coast of France would be littered with Pillboxes and observation posts/bunkers. To get them out of view they often painted house features like stairs and door and windows on it. This could be a good touch. I will check my books if I can find some usefull pics for you. If you like of course.

Hello Aaron!

If you are not in hurry I could help you! I will go to Caen in 3 weeks (around 5-6-7 August) and could probably find some refs about the town during the 43-44 period. Caen is not a typical French town anymore as it was almost totaly destroyed in 1944. So taking pictures now would not be of great use... only old pictures could help!

Jean-Luc

Hey guys

Thanks for the advice. We had a good trawl through the net and managed to find a cpl pictures to give us a rough idea about what we want, although its pretty hard to find anything substantial. Regards 'onsite' photos that would be fantastic, thankyou for the offer !

Anything you could dig up would be great Robert i take note of the bunkers info. Ive put a picture of the diagram we are currently using to plan our dio numbered are:
1 Officers briefing - organizing where everything is going
2Orderlies/MPs directing traffic
3Officers sat outside Cafe
4Troops moving through the scene
5/6 soldiers on bikes passing by/chatting to girls
7parked staff car
8Truck unloading supplies
9Wespe turning corner

comments/advice gladly welcomed!
Aaron
[img]http://photos.kitmaker.net/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=2465img]

If you go to a Barnes & Nobles bookstore (or Amazon) you will be able to find a series of books called "The Most Beautiful Villages of".... and they have one in the series for Normandy.

The photos are excellent, and all in color... the vast majority of the photos focus on the older sections of town, and there are large sections on Caen, Brest, Coutans, and other nearby small towns... lots of signage,great architecture, and superb color ideas... this is absolutely excellent reference material.

Another suggestion is to look for old post cards. I do not have everything book marked but this should help.

http://www.ansichtskartenversand.com/vintagepostcards/

I have found some great inspirational stuff here as well as other postcard sites.

Paul

Thanks guys

We were discussing the diorama last nite and had a look around the net for any helpful images. We did find a good dday site
http://www.6juin1944.com/assaut/en_index.html
which gives some good overviews and has a few good photos.
To tell you the truth i/we never even considered postcards, so thanks for that. Ill be sure to have a look on amazon for those books - they may well throw some light on the kind of buildings were trying to display.

Cheers for now.

Aaron