Ultimate Then & Now Compilation | Sainte-Mère-Église | D Day Normandy WW2 

My father was in the 82nd, 505th PIR. He made all 4 combat jumps during WWII. Interestingly when jumped into Ste. Mere Eglise he landed in the alley next to the aid station. Another trooper and he joined up and went towards the aid station. As they went around back the glider crashed in front of them. They in fact crawled to the glider where they met up with another trooper. There were injured and dead aboard. They crawled back to the aid station while under small arms and mortar fire to get help. They approached an officer who was in the station and reported what they knew, dead and injured were on the glider. The officer would not send any men to assist because he said it was “ too dangerous “ to render aid to which my father promptly told the officer to “ go to hell I’m getting those guys out of there” which he and the fellow troopers did against orders. They got back to the glider went inside both pilots were dead but there were several badly wounded men. They managed to get the injured into the aid station and went back to retrieve needed equipment and supplies. My dad was injured ( shrapnel in his face and broken fingers) as was Joe the other trooper who was with my dad. I have the commendation letter as well as a photo of my dad, Joe and the other trooper in front of the glider. I am so glad I found your channel. My dad was a hero in the company of thousands of other heroes. Airborne all the way! Side note my dad lived a long and productive life, sadly he passed away 12 years ago… June 5 th almost to the hour he was jumping into Ste. Mere Eglise.

My father was a Normandy Veteran and a member of the association, he took us to Sainte - Mere - Aglise many times and all over Normandy too. He was one of the lucky ones, injured twice. Most of his comrades killed in action. Thank you for this honour of taking us back to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of D- Day. My father passed away in 2016 aged 90. Very moving video.

Exited for this! My great grandfather jumped into St Mere Eglise he was with the 82nd airborne

Rob, I sincerely thank you for bringing us this entire Before & Now program for all of us to see, leading up to the 80th Anniversary of D-Day. It has been a wonderful experience to watch them all, to honor the men who fought or contributed in any way to support the Allied Forces, and a special Touché to you for showing us so much of France, Belgium, Germany, or Poland. 🇺🇲 🇨🇦 🇬🇧

11:10 - those shutters on the 2nd floor are the same! They still have the exact same slats missing. Crazy!

I love the way these Then & Now videos really make History come to life. Thank you for doing them and dodging the traffic for us.

I love how so much of Normandy has remained unchanged since D-Day. Thank you for these then & now videos.

These photos morphing gives me goosebumps.

Just makes me cry...for so many reasons. Very powerful video! Thank you!! 💪❤️💗

Rob your work is fantastic and much appreciated- Especially today! I've never been to Northern France or had the opportunity to visit most of these cities and towns, but until that time comes I'm grateful for what you bring! Cheers from Michigan, USA.

I love then and now. You have done these so well. It is all so historically fascinating. Thank you, from New Zealand

You've a real talent to take us back 80 years

Happy D-day from Bosnia and Herzegovina🇨🇵🤝🇬🇧🤝🇷🇺🤝🇺🇸 Rest in peace all Americans,Canadians and Britishs soldiers who died😢

Just outstanding. I believe your exceptional use of before and after pics is one of the very best ways to make history come alive. Thanks

Absolutely superb! Your efforts are to be commended; your tenacity in relocating the sites, the finesse with which you match up photos and the very educational and fascinating stories which align are very much appreciated, particularly on this most special of remembrance days. Bless you for your skill and for sharing with those of us who truly enjoy your artistic work. I always look forward to seeing these videos and learning. 🇺🇸 from North Carolina

Matey - that was a superb show. Thanks for taking time to explain the challenges of getting the photographic match. Well done 👍🏻

Another great video Rob! You just keep getting better like a fine wine.

Absolutely outstanding (again)!😮😊

I was there 3 weeks ago, on the 80th anniversary. It was incredible. There was a Sherman and an M-18 in the streets, surrounded by a mass of people, folks crowded on top of the tanks, as if it was 1944 all over again. Unforgettable images and memories.

Really love the work you do! Bringing the WW2 past up into the present! Excellent!

WOW! Fantastic job of finding all these places!

Thank you for this. Bringing the past to life. I love this layering of past and present.

solid 80 years from that day, the liberation of the whole world began, salute to all allied forces.

The effort you put into your vids is truly amazing!!! Thanks for the effort!!!

Just brilliant thanks so much for making these videos..

Great job matching up those amazing photos.

They gave us so much and look what we've done with it.

I could only imagine being... 16,17,18 years old (yes many kids lied about their age) and getting dropped into that situation. Going from a normal life into actual hell, they truly are the greatest generation, without their sacrifices who knows how the world would be today. Never forget

Excellent stuff! Well done.

One of your best and touching videos. I love the way you lined up the pictures

Totally amazing work!!! I watched with amazement of how little some of the town has changed. I couldn't help but think as I watched that the only differences in some of the photos are the people. So many have left us now. They truly are the greatest generation of our time. From the very towns people to all the men who fought and gave it all back to them. The pictures are really extraordinary. Great work. I've shared this with all the men in my unit. I'm currently serving in US Special Operations for 17yrs now. All were just as amazed as I of the great work you did with this. Thank you.

TREMENDOUS CINEMATOGRAPHY, THANKS FOR SHARING. SALUDOS

Rob, I wish to thank you for sharing these amazing photos with us. Both my paternal grandpa, and my great-uncle, who doctored his birth certificate in order to join the fight, who was only 16 when he joined in 1942. They both joined the Navy after Pearl Harbor was attacked, but my grandpa fought on the Pacific, and my great-uncle fought on the Atlantic. My great-uncle’s ship was torpedoed by the Germans, and he, along with his bunk buddy and many others, survived the attack. However, they had limited amount of life rafts, so they had to take turns floating in the ocean. When it was my great-uncle’s turn to go into the water, he couldn’t wake his buddy up. So, he began pulling him into the raft. He saw why his buddy couldn’t be awoken, and, from his waist down, his body was missing. Sharks swarmed around, and were attacking any and all sailors that were in the water. There was a never-ending sea of blood. My great-uncle never heard his buddy scream when he was being attacked by a shark, and that was due to the temperature of the water at night. Since my great-uncle was only 16 when he enlisted, he had vivid nightmares about that day. His 2 sons had enlisted in the military (one, Danny, enlisting in the Navy, and the other, Ronnie, enlisting in the Army), but his son, Danny, had been killed by a shark attack off the coast of Florida while he was on furlough (August of 1970, the same day I was baptized). His other son, Ronnie, was sent to Vietnam for 2 tours. He sadly took his life in 2008. He was in so much pain due to the VA screwing up his ankle surgery, something he had injured in Vietnam, which they operated on the wrong ankle. He’s missed greatly. I enlisted in the Army, which I’m the only female to enlist on both sides of my family. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to those who fought for our freedom, especially those who died for our freedom. We must NEVER EVER forget D-Day, or Pearl Harbor.

Well done, wonderful research and amazing photos. I cannot get over the fact, that it has hardly changed in eighty years.

That brought back memories visited St Mere many times. I recognised all those scenes.

Excellent

Merci de refaire revivre ces moments intenses .. inoubliable..

Il ne faut rien oublier tant d'hommes sont morts pour notre liberté. Nous avons connu dans le Maine aux Etats Unis un vétéran ( le beau frere de notre amie) il avait participé au débarquement en Normandie et a pu nous raconter . Il le faisait f'un facon humble sans se vanter , merci Henry. La folie des hommes continue quand même . Ils n'ont rien compris et les marchands d'armes n'ont jamais aussi bien dormi sur leurs finances.

Just amazing then and now. This is my favorite part of viewing history. Remarkable pictures. Thanks for sharing these moments in history.

Spectacular work! Like yesteryear is alive, today! You're creating history with history! Just brilliant!

Rob, this set of photos are unbelievable. I wasn’t in the war. I was too young but they still make my heart ache, the brave brave soldiers thank you so much for the effort that you put into this channel it must take a lot of time and effort👏👏

I love history and the fact that we never seem to learn from it. Your content is always amazing, thank you for sharing.

Can't thank you enough for all of your hard work and your passion!!! Incredible to say the least!!!

thank you for all of these and the shorts as well. when i see the now and then i feel like the men are still there. and i think perhaps their spirits are . i am near tears when i see the photos. Ray Tonns

A beautifully narrated and presented video - please consider publishing a photo book of "then/now" sites. The camera work in this video - moving/adjusting the photos on camera - was really superb.

Very nice video…thank you and great work! I only wish that I had this when I visited Normandy from Texas a few years ago. It really is amazing how little these small towns have changed in 80 years.

Brilliant, but very haunting

Thank you for this explorer.

Wow!! That was such an incredible and soul-wrenching video. Thank you! 🇱🇷🙏🏻❤️

Superb a very moving experience we should never forget what so many did and never returned 👏🇬🇧

Hi, This show blew me away! You take the then and now concept to the next level. Tom Mullen, Geneva, IL USA

Excellent video....well done....and I just noted the parachute on the Church steeple.....likely a permanent one given the heroism of the US Airborne. And of the soldier who landed there in 1944. Les Griffiths

Brilliantly done! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👍🏻

Really enjoyed this one. Great work!

Very, very grateful!

Thank you for a job well done. I have been to Sainte Mere Eglise and the church is beautiful, as well as the town itself. 🙏🇺🇸

Que gran trabajo. Muchas gracias por el esfuerzo. Tu canal es genial, permite ver la historia de los lugares “ no hay lugar pequeño” todos formaron parte de la historia. Tienes mi admiración por lo bien que haces tu trabajo. Muchas gracias.

Very cool video. It's so cool to see all these photos in the places they were taken. Just thinking what those soldiers were thinking in the early years of the war.

Fascinating! Thank you. Superb research 👍

Absolutely fantastic! I love how you do this, really brings to life the streets I walked.

Brilliant video that is very moving. Thank you!

A very mesmerising beautifully shot video.,. I really appreciate your patience in what you do to make such haunting, poignant video's... Thank you so much.

Excellent video thanks for sharing the photos. I was there a week ago touring on my motorbike with my mates 😉

Obrigado pelo vídeo, e pelo seu excelente trabalho!!❤

Just brilliant thank you .

Incredible the old buildings are still there.

Great work. Thanks, from New Zealand.

I just think it’s awesome of you to reply to every single comment on your videos. That is a feat in and of itself. Props to you for that and for the great videos. Just found your page and I’m excited to have more content to watch. Keep up the good work!

82nd Airborne were based in Leicester UK before take off for Normandy. My wife's Mum, as a teenager had a boyfriend from those men. He was very generous with cigarettes and foodstuffs for her family, in those months before June 6th. She never saw him again, or heard from him.

Bonjour, Toujours un aussi bon travail, pour ne pas oublier... Un Grand Merci à votre travail pour la mémoire de ceux qui ont donné de leurs souffrances et de de leur vie... _Les jeunes de maintenant, (au 20/21è siecle), ne savent pas pourquoi, ils sont en vie aujourd'hui...

Amazing work. Thank you.

If you want a total WWII LIVE immersion experience, recommend the Internet, 24:7 radio station British Home Front Radio. All World War II - in the UK. All the music, news broadcasts bad and good, recorded coverage of the battle of Britain, recorded coverage of the bombings of Britain with excited, breathless reporters, and bombs exploding in the background. Churchill speeches to strengthen and encourage the people. German radio propaganda blasts to the poor scared British people. Can’t say enough about this radio station if you want the experience. They even have news clips of what’s going on with the volunteers on the homefront and how to grow a vegetable garden with vitamin C vegetables because all the citrus was being sent to the fighting soldiers on the front. Music unending. This is the radio stations the soldiers were listening to all the time from 1939+ they were in UK while they trained. It’s such a privilege to hear what they were hearing. Totally hooked. Started listening, January 2024 when 96-year-old grand uncle sent me the info. Background all day while I work. Just got to say - the music was h*lla better than it is today. Full of love and positivity. Longing. Like I said - totally hooked. 🎉

Muy buenas tomas. Muchas gracias. Falto una foto donde sale un soldado ingles en una calle de Normandia. La vi cuando estuve allá el mes de mayo.

Thank you and God Bless.

Thank you for this epic video!

Thanks for this.. just been there on 5th june.. pretty much walked your route and watched the procession.

Excellent research and photo capture. Not easy doing then and now. Job well done. 6/6.

Thank you for the very interesting tour, I must say that hedges alongside the church I liked much better than what it looks like now. The glider destroyed after hitting the wall and all those poor wasted lives wad very very sad. Bless all those who fought and died.

Great video , thanks !

extraordianario trabajo, gracias

Excellent work sir ❤

I think these pictures are the best yet! You are superb and with such precision. I actually felt I was right there so intense it all was. It was indeed a wonderful tribute for the 80th anniversary of DDay. We will remember them. 🇬🇧 🙏 🇺🇸

Fantastic job!

Excellent work! The difference you are seeing in the lenses is that today's lenses are more wide angle. The next time you're out doing this, try zooming in a bit with your camera and stepping back a few steps or more, you might see it line up closer to the original.

Fantastic job with this. But, for ME, I prefer to see the Then pictures first, it's easier to line them up.

Thank you for your amazing videos, yes as you said it is like looking at ghosts but very poignant.

Nice video ❤

Thanks for video

Great video.

Excellent work and nothing but respectful. ❤️🇦🇺 If I might make one suggestion: if you merge from new to old and briefly back to new, if allows my brain another moment to look for details. Especially where a roofline remains. Thanks again!

Very cool.

Excellent set up 👏

Wow! Amazing

درود بر شما. بسیار خوشحال شدم از اینکه میبینم چقدر به مکان و جاهای قدیمی ارزش قائل هستید و آنها را برای آیندگان نگه می‌دارید از شدت شوق بعضی از تصاویر اشک من را درمی‌آورد. سپاس❤

In Holland we have the "Doden herdenking". Everybody is to be silent for 1 minute in remembrance of the casualties of WW2. I was sitting in a restaurant with a group of friends when the time came to be silent, but the music stayed on and everybody kept talking. This was the first time that we really realized that this generation "Z" really doesn't have a clue. What a shame...

So beautiful video…..the then and now technique is my favorite.... we call it rifotografia in Italy (rephotography,), I also make some videos using this technique. What catches the eye when comparing old and new photos are the cars of today which in a certain sense ruin the beauty of the places. Honor to the guys of Omaha beach and all the soldiers who took part in the landing....

Great!

Estoy sorprendida no hay un solo lugar en donde no pasaron los soldados caminaban y caminaban. Y mas sorprendida de como encuentras el lugar exacto antes y ahora.

Love watching these, I'm still baffled by how you line them up though, do you have the original image over your lense as you take the photo?. Can you do a video of the Netherlands? , still my favourite is the two women waving to the low flying Lancaster on Operation Manna and the Lancaster flying over the windmill.

I love how it hasnt changed😊