D-Day Normandy Revisited: A Photographic Pilgramage [Hardcover]

Ricky Bougaardt (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2004

This book takes a fresh look at the crucial twenty-four hours of the Allied landing of June 1944 and revisits the beaches of Normandy where it took place. Today, the landscape is still crisscrossed by the bunkers and anti-tank defenses of the Atlantic Wall, and by the infrastructure brought in by the allies. Like dinosaurs, they contrast starkly with the quiet beaches and the lush countryside, and bring to mind the thousands of lives lost on that day. Richard Bougaardt is a young and talented photographer who has been interested in WWII since his childhood. He has made an impressive photographic study of the sites of the landing and his images are both beautiful and strangely haunting. Being roughly the same age as the British, American and Canadian soldiers, who fought and often died there in the name of freedom and, of course, the German troops who had felt safe behind their defenses, gave him a special empathy with his subject. Richard Bougaardt wrote the commentary and edited the personal recollections of soldiers on both sides, and of the French civilians who waited and hoped. Whenever possible, the modern images are matched with archive pictures showing the same structures or locations in 1944. The book is a moving tribute to human spirit and to a beautiful and tragic part of France.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"contains 100 b/w photographs of landmarks taken to contrast with archival images from the immediate aftermath of the landings." -- Soldier

About the Author

Ricky Bougaardt was born in London in 1976, of Anglo-south African parentage. As a small boy in his grandfather's house, he developed a fascination for WWII, by looking at pictures in an old encyclopedia. At the same time he discovered photography by experimenting with his father's 1960's Russian Leica camera. Richard studied French and consolidated his knowledge of photography while at University. Over the last two years he has made numerous visits to Normandy. His long solitary walks along eerily empty beaches, home to the remains of the D-Day landing in 1944, gave rise to the remarkable series of images found in this book.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Chaucer Press (June 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1904449298
• ISBN-13: 978-1904449294
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,426,898 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There was so much more than just the Landings., September 5, 2004

By 

Ned Middleton (British professional underwater photo-journalist & author) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: D-Day Normandy Revisited: A Photographic Pilgramage (Hardcover)

It seems that the very mention of the phrase "D-Day" is always followed by the word "landings" as, together, they conjure up images of small craft and thousands of allied soldiers struggling to create beachheads on a stretch of French coastline fiercely defended by well-entrenched German soldiers. Whilst those landings signalled the beginning of the end of Nazi Germany, there was so much more besides and this book covers them all to great effect.

D-Day, Normandy Revisited is a hard back book measuring approx. 11" x 8" and containing 190 pages of well researched and equally well presented facts and photographs about one of the most pivotal dates in modern history - 6 June 1944.

Five beaches on the coast of Normandy were each given their own code name on being selected for the landing of over 156,000 allied troops. Additional Airborne Forces were also dropped behind enemy lines in order to attack the beach defences from the rear. As each of the 5 beachheads became established so those troops were then able to move inland - fighting running battles in the Normandy countryside as they did so. The book is, therefore, divided into five main sections as it tells the complete story of each of those beaches - Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. In this way the reader is treated to what the publishers aptly describe as a "photographic pilgrimage" - firstly to the beach in question and then to the towns, villages, farms and even individual buildings relevant to the events which followed the establishment of each separate beachhead.

With an easy-to-read style of writing, the author cleverly steers the reader through everything from the first wet footprints to the fierce fighting in the French countryside. With a generous and well-chosen selection of photographs - both modern and historic, we are shown what happened then and what it looks like now - 60 years on. Then, having followed the fortunes of those troops from one beach, we start all over again with another.

In many ways this book is a jigsaw containing all the pieces which make up a complete picture of the events which were D-Day. I have read the book and it seems to me that all the pieces are there but, more importantly, it serves as a most appropriate celebration of those key events which, as I have already mentioned, saw the beginning of the end of an evil regime which once dominated mainland Europe.

NM