• Maurice Gilling
  • Amber Gilling
  • Riley Gilling
  • Maurice Gilling
  • Amber Gilling
  • Riley Gilling

Europe Xmas River Cruise ++

Budapest, Vienna to Nuremburg (Danube), Munich, Paris, D-Day beaches, WW1 & 2 sites Czytaj więcej
  • Driving from Paris

    27 grudnia 2024, Francja ⋅ ⛅ -1 °C

    On the 27th, we picked up a rental car from Central Paris. Driving out was quite an experience, but we survived. With a few food stops along the way and a shopping trip for food, we eventually arrived in Arromanches where we booked an Air bnb for 3 nights. Czytaj więcej

  • Abbaye aux hommes (Men’s Abbey), Caen

    28 grudnia 2024, Francja ⋅ ☁️ 1 °C

    Built by William (the conqueror) Duke of Normandy and King of England to appease Rome so he could marry his wife Matilda (they were cousins & the Pope originally refused permission, so they both built an abbey in Caen). William is buried here in the attached St Stephen’s church. Czytaj więcej

  • Omaha Beach American Cemetery

    29 grudnia 2024, Francja ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C

    The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial overlooks Omaha beach and contains the graves of 9,389 US military dead, most of whom lost their lives in the D-Day landings and ensuing operations.

    We managed to find the graves of the 2 Niland brothers who inspired the Saving Private Ryan movie.
    After a set of 4 brothers had all been killed in action some months before, the US govt made a policy that no family would lose all their sons again. There were 4 brothers, 2 killed in the western front & 1 that they thought was killed in the Pacific, so they sent the 4th home. Luckily the brother in the Pacific was a POW and survived as well.
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  • Dead Man's Corner

    29 grudnia 2024, Francja ⋅ ☁️ 6 °C

    Set in the heart of the parachute zone and the battlefield at Carentan, Dead Man’s Corner Museum is located in the former German command post before being taken over by the American paratroopers, and houses many remnants from the combat. Czytaj więcej

  • Azincourt

    31 grudnia 2024, Francja ⋅ ☁️ 4 °C

    Azincourt (Agincourt in English) is a town where the key battle of the Hundred Years War took place here on October 25, 1415, in which English outnumbered forces under Henry V defeated a French army. It was one of many clashes between England and France over the course of the Hundred Years’ War (which actually lasted 116 years, from 1337 to 1453). Fueling that conflict were complex, interlocking feudal relationships between the two royal dynasties involving English claims to French lands and to the French throne itself.

    It has gone down in legend as one of England's greatest military victories. Henry's army lost between 200 to 400 men (including the Duke of York and the Earl of Suffolk), while French casualties were estimated as high as 10,000, including one-third of the nobility of France,
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  • Vimy Ridge Canadian Memorial

    31 grudnia 2024, Francja ⋅ ☁️ 4 °C

    Vimy Ridge Memorial is Canada’s largest overseas national memorial.

    On land granted by France to the Canadian people, the memorial towers over the scene of Canada’s most recognizable WWI engagement, the Battle of Vimy Ridge, fought from 9 to 12 April 1917.

    It commemorates all Canadians who served, particularly the 60,000 who gave their lives in France. It also bears the names of 11,000 Canadian servicemen who died in France - many of them in the fight for Vimy Ridge - who have no known grave.
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  • Cathedral de notre Dame d’Amiens

    31 grudnia 2024, Francja ⋅ ☁️ 6 °C

    Considered a masterpiece of Gothic art, Notre-Dame d'Amiens is the largest medieval cathedral in the world, with an interior volume of nearly 200,000 m3, double that of Notre-Dame de Paris. It also has the highest nave, its vault reaching up 42 metres.

    The first stones were laid in 1220 and construction was fairly rapid, indeed most of it was complete by the end of the 13th century: this gives Notre-Dame d'Amiens an architectural uniformity envied by many of its rivals.

    Twice listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Notre-Dame d'Amiens celebrated its 800th anniversary in 2020.
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  • Private D C Alley Memorial

    31 grudnia 2024, Francja ⋅ ☁️ 4 °C

    Private David Clifford Alley,
    DOD 26Sep16 Age 22

    1st Battalion Auckland regiment (Countess of Ranfurly's Own)

    Grave - unknown on memorial wall

    DC Alley died during the Battle of Morval during the Somme
    Caterpillar Valley was the name given by the army to the long valley which runs West to East, past "Caterpillar Wood", to the high ground at Guillemont. Longueval village is on the Northern crest of this valley and 500 metres West of the village, on the South side of the road to Contalmaison, is Caterpillar Valley Cemetery.
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  • Captain Eric Buckingham Alley

    1 stycznia 2025, Francja ⋅ 🌬 10 °C

    Capt. Eric Buckingham Alley DOD 17Jun16 Age 23

    Grave Location - Bailleul Community Cemetery extension, Nord, France II, E, 201

    Bailleul was occupied on 14 October 1914 by the 19th Brigade and the 4th Division. It became an important railhead, air depot and hospital centre, with the 2nd, 3rd, 8th, 11th, 53rd, 1st Canadian and 1st Australian Casualty Clearing Stations quartered in it for considerable periods. It was a corps headquarters until July 1917, when it was severely bombed and shelled, and after the Battle of Bailleul (13-15 April 1918), it fell into German hands and was not retaken until 30 August 1918. 

    The earliest Commonwealth burials at Bailleul were made at the east end of the communal cemetery and in April 1915, when the space available had been filled, the extension was opened on the east side of the cemetery. The extension was used until April 1918, and again in September, and after the Armistice graves were brought in from the neighbouring battlefields. 

    BAILLEUL COMMUNAL CEMETERY contains 610 Commonwealth burials of the First World War; 17 of the graves were destroyed by shell fire and are represented by special memorials. 

    BAILLEUL COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION contains 4,403 Commonwealth burials of the First World War; 11 of the graves made in April 1918 were destroyed by shell fire and are represented by special memorials. There are also 17 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War and 154 German burials from both wars.
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  • Poperinge, Belgium

    1 stycznia 2025, Belgia ⋅ 🌬 11 °C

    The little town we stayed at close to Ypres. The hotel was a living museum that used to be an officers club during WWI.

    The cat was a huge hit. He ended up meowing outside our rooms the first night & when we opened we the door he dashed in and made himself at home.
    We had to prop the door open so he could leave in the night.

    The 2nd night he didn’t turn up as others were staying at the hotel as well, so he could have got a better offer, although, he may have been locked out all night as he turned up at the bathroom window (on the 3rd floor) this morning while M was in the shower & he let him in the window. He went straight to our room while we were packing. The museum gift shop had his face all over mugs, magnets & they even sold small cuddly stuffed animal versions of him as well.
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  • Tracing Alfred William Alley’s movements

    2 stycznia 2025, Belgia ⋅ ☁️ 4 °C

    Through finding Alfred’s battalion diaries written by the commanding officer we were able to trace where he was in the few days before he died.

    Their camp was moved from one location to a few kilometres away & Alfred and some others were sent to a supply dump site called Hornby where they were tasked with making g some accommodations. It was when they were returning from Hornby dump to the new camp site that they came under artillery fire and he and another man were killed and some wounded, all from his brigade. Czytaj więcej

  • Corporal Alfred William Alley

    2 stycznia 2025, Belgia ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C

    Corporal Alfred William Alley DOD 20Oct17 Age 26

    Grave Enclosure No.2.I.D.11

    From the Battalion Diary:

    "15Oct17 Battalion camp moved from sheet 28 H.26.b.0.8 TO H.19.d.6.8

    16Oct17 X1A and Z1A batteries commenced the construction of shelters for men required. They are to camp at Hornby dump (J.25.a.47) until shelters are completed.

    21 Oct The following casualties occurred while a party was proceeding from Hornby dump to reserve positions held by X 1A & Z 1A batteries.

    9872 Cpt Alley AW and 32760. Haydon, AE killed in action by shell fire and 11339 HICKSON,H wounded/ All of X1A bty."
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  • Rifleman Frederick Alley

    2 stycznia 2025, Belgia ⋅ ⛅ 6 °C

    Rifleman Frederick Alley DOD 13Dec17 Age unknown

    Killed in Action

    3 NZ Rifle Brigade, 3 Battalion

    Grave Plot II, C.22

    The site of the current cemetery was until the Third Battle of Ypres in no man’s land. On July 31, 1917, the 15th (Scottish) Division captured the Lost Corner and Freiberg with the 55th (West Lancashire) Division on their left flank. The cemetery was started the next month by the 15th and 16th (Irish) Division, under the name ‘New Cemetery, Frezenberg’. A few weeks later, however, a British plane crashed near the current ‘Cross of Sacrifice’, which earned the cemetery its current name, Aeroplane Cemetery. The cemetery was used by combat units until March 1918.

    The cemetery includes the graves of 15 men who served with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.

    Plots II to VIII, and part of Plot I, were formed after the Armistice when graves were brought in from small burial grounds and the surrounding battlefields. There are now 1,105 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 636 of the burials are unidentified but special memorials commemorate eight casualties known or believed to be buried among them.
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  • Esssex Farm Cemetery

    2 stycznia 2025, Belgia ⋅ ⛅ 5 °C

    This cemetery is in the site where Canadian doctor John McRae wrote the poem “InFlanders Fields”.

    He was inspired to write it on May 3, 1915, after presiding over the funeral of friend and fellow soldier Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, who died in the Second Battle of Ypres. According to legend, fellow soldiers retrieved the poem after McCrae, initially dissatisfied with his work, discarded it.

    The location also still has the remains of a field aid station he had built.
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  • Koniec wyprawy
    8 stycznia 2025