World War II military vehicles and aircraft in Normandy for the 80th anniversary of D-Day

@DefAviation ES 6·04·2024 · 21:26 0

This Thursday, June 6, the 80th anniversary of the Normandy Landings will be celebrated, a milestone in contemporary military history.

More than a beach: the division of the Spanish soldier who fell on D-Day returns to Normandy
An excellent report on Manuel Otero, the Spaniard who fell in the Normandy landings

In Normandy, various events are being prepared to commemorate this anniversary of D-Day, surely one of the last in which there will be the opportunity to have the presence of veterans of that battle, since most of them are already over 100 years old.

In addition to the official acts, a very important part of this commemoration is carried out by historical reenactors, who attend this event with uniforms from that era and also with vehicles from the Second World War. The Overlord Museum of Colleville, located near the famous Omaha Beach, has become the meeting point for some of these vehicles, which you can see below.

A US Army M13 MGMC half-track vehicle. It was an anti-aircraft version of the famous M3 half-track equipped with a turret with four Browning M2HB machine guns (photo: Overlord Museum).

Two German tanks: a Königstiger Ausf B (left) and a Panzer IV Ausf J. There are very few Königstiger left in the world and only one operational, which is this one. It is preserved in the Musée des Blindés in Saumur, France, and is the first time it has visited Normandy in 20 years (photo: TW Historia).

Three American trucks from World War II. From left to right, a Dodge WC-54 ambulance, a GMC CCKW truck and a WC-56 command vehicle (photo: Samochody II Wojny Światowej).

A Sherman VC Firefly tank (the "Buccaneer", on the left) and an M10 Wolverine tank destroyer (the "Blimey Bill"), both from the British Army (photo: Benjamas Klingler).

An M4A2 Sherman tank, the "Arcis sur aube", of the 501st Tank Regiment of the French Army. The tank carries several soldiers from the German Army who are visiting Normandy to mark this anniversary (photo: TW Historia).

A German Panzer II Ausf tank. L "Luchs". In this photo we see the opposite situation to the previous photo: a French soldier is on his turret (photo: Overlord Museum).

Two US Army light tanks: an M24 Chaffee (left, serial number 30121401) and an M-3 Stuart (3045910-S). The latter was a very numerous tank: more than 22,000 units were manufactured (photo: Cyrille Bonne).

You can see here a video from Tergal14 Mandolin that shows this concentration of vehicles in the Overlord Museum of Colleville, including very good images of the Königstiger:

In addition, CobraEmergency yesterday published a video of the ground vehicles and planes that seen in Normandy these days, including old Douglas C-47 Skytrains dropping paratroopers:

CobraEmergency has also published this other video in which we see the traffic of these days in Normandy, with many Willys Jeeps and other vehicles from the Second World War:

---

Main image: Tergal14 Mandolin.