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In the early hours of the night,  British 6 Airborne landed in Normandy. 77 years ago tonight. As far as I( can tell, Cpl William Bartle of Goodliffe St in Hyson Green was one of them, the first Nottingham soldier I can find to land there. Not far from the Merville gun battery, which could have caused astounding damage. 

For all of the brave soldiers who fought that day, please raise a glass. I will. 

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Here Here...... Cheers

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Its been a fascination for me, not to just understand the soldiers and what they did, Cpl Bartle returned from Normandy having earned the Military Medal, no mean feat, but to their homes, the pubs they went to. 

What started me off in this was a visit to La Boiselle in France. 1 July 1916. Centre of the Somme assault. A little and beautiful cemetery is the last resting place of Cpl Croft, from Belton St, just next to Goodliffe St, and I started to wonder who these people were, and most of all, their leaving of their homes, some returned, some did not. 20 years ago, I wore their uniform and boots and marched their routes as a recreation. the boots were abominable, and stripped the flesh off my feet quickly. I learned very quickly why the soldiers hated cobbled roads. I did spend a night in what  remained of a trench, but it was  a beautiful bright warm night in Somme. And I had Calvados.  

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Some time ago there was a post about the American Airborne who had been stationed on Wollaton Park during WW2. This led to a very interesting exchange of postings about a ‘yank’ who my mother had dated in her late teens. He wasn’t actually on Wollaton Park but a hostel of some sort on Derby Road. If you have 15 minutes or so may I recommend that you read through it as it’s relevant to the D day landings and is quite a nice story. If things had gone differently I might have been posting on the ‘Littlefallstalgia’ web  site and not Nottstalgia. Here’s the link.

 

https://nottstalgia.com/forums/topic/9085-american-airborne-in-nottingham/

 

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