Craig MacIntosh's Blog - Posts Tagged "wwii-battlefield-tours"

Turning back pages from a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Normandy and beyond with my son this year. I finally visited the ground of my first novel, "The Fortunate Orphans." Got to tour storied battlefields, towns and cemetery settings. Every inch of ground was bought with a price. Can almost smell the smoke; hear the artillery, tank treads and small arms fire. Will post more sketches made on site before the year is out. Flew to Paris and traded the capital's trash, graffiti, and ugliness of its industrial underbelly for the pastoral countryside en route to the Norman coast. I'm more a southeast Asia man but this part of Europe was an eye-opener. We started with the beaches of Omaha and Utah and continued on to Juno, Gold and Sword. Reverent is the byword on these hallowed grounds. Not to be missed...though I had stayed away for seventy-plus years. Will continue to post more sketches and notes in the days ahead. The drawings, one of Omaha Beach, the other of a German machine gun bunker at Juno Beach and a Canadian flag, were done hastily in the field, because I did not want to be left behind by my fellow visitors. To get an authoritative feel for Europe's battlefields such as the Normandy landings read the well-researched "The Guns At Last Light." Rick Atkinson