Normandy skyline postcards issued to soldiers...

Hello,
I'd lke to tell you about something my great grandfather, William Cook, did in WW2...

He owned and ran a printing company and was commissioned to print postcards to be issued to soldiers that were heading to Normandy for D-Day...
Hidden within the picture was the skyline of the Normandy coast!

Sadly we don't have a copy of the postcard or any other 'evidence' but my mother remember's it well.
We also know the name of the company and it's address...

I have googled for any reference to this online but, so far, I've had no luck.
I don't suppose any of you lovely people can shed any light (or even heard of them)????

Many thanks
j

 

Hi Remrats
welcome to the forum. Hope you enjoy your time here

Perhaps if you add something about the pic on your header, more people might be able to help you

Nicola

 

Thank you for your advice Nicola,

I just tried to edit my header as you suggested... I seem to be able to edit the message body but not the title itself... maybe I should delete this thread at start a new one?

Julie

 

Hello

1944 isn't really my year but I have read a similiar story to this where the British government asked the public to send photo's from their holidays in France before the war and any post cards that they may have. The story is in one of the After the Battle D-Day volumnes and very good both books are too !

Not sure why someone would take post cards with them though as they could take maps.

Jim (Driver-Op) maybe able to help-He's a WW2 vet and took part in D-Day.

 

Thank you for your advice and help Nicola and Diane

@ Drew5233...
That's one of my wonderings too!.........

 

Julie can you tell us the name of the printing company?

I'm just wondering if this could be part of the D-day deception planning. Rather than having a skyline of Normandy, maybe it was Calais and allowed to fall into German hands.

Lee

 

I hadn't thought of that idea Lee!....

The company was based in Caterham and was called 'Acme Printing company' or Acme Printing Works'

j

 

remrats,

Here's some info on your grandfather and a mention of the postcards at page bottom. According to that they were issued to navel personnel.

William Thomas Cook


"William was the owner of 'Acme Printing Works' in Caterham, Surrey, UK.

He employed Headley Knight. The family connection between them was that Headley was first cousin of Georgina Cook (William's wife). The factory printed picture post cards and cigarette cards. During World War II, it is understood that the factory was secretly responsible for printing the little cards depicting French coastline sillouettes which were issued to naval personnel involved in the "D-Day landings"

 

Thank you that Cee... unfortunately you've come across my Geni family tree though!

remrats,

Here's some info on your grandfather and a mention of the postcards at page bottom. According to that they were issued to navel personnel.

William Thomas Cook

 

Julie, if the postcards were purely sillouettes of the coastline that does make more sense. If the outlines were concealed within another picture on the postcard then it does start to sound a little unusual.

Acme printing company is ringing a bell in the back of my mind though. I want to say there could be an SOE connection. I'm sure I've read a reference to an ACME company in an SOE file at some point, as the first thing it makes me think of is the Road Runner cartoons! I'll have a quite dig around in my files...

 

Thank you that Cee... unfortunately you've come across my Geni family tree though!
Julie, I thought that might be the case and wouldn't you know I spelt naval wrong ...

But if indeed it could be established they were given to naval personnel rather than a host of others it might indicate their use was for identification rather than deception purposes.

Although not strictly related to the topic at hand I came across this interesting project to examine the material saved of public submissions called for at that time by the government. Andie mentioned this previously in his post.

Normandy Snaps

I'm not sure if this has stalled or is still on going. The amount of material collected at that time was immense!

 

Hi,
The panoramic photos that were given to the landing craft crews were not really postcards.

They were a series of photos joined together and put in a booklet. They opened out concertina style. Size was around 8 x 5 inches.

Not sure how many in total existed but there were at least 14 different booklets that covered the coast from Trouville to the Cherbourg area.

Cover of a book and sample photo attached.

Thanks for posting that link CEE. I had always wondered where they had ended up.

Regards

Danny

 

Danny,

That's great - thank you so much for posting! I was hoping some samples would show up. I should have realized that like anything to do with D-Day it would turn out to be a much bigger project. There's probably more to this story yet.

Cheers ...

 

Thank you so much for that post Danny,

I wonder if the booklet is what my mother is talking about then??
She was only 7 at the time of the D-Day landings... she has clear memories of being banned from going to work with her grandfather for a few weeks while he was doing a 'top secret mission'!!... it wasn't until after the war (and she was older) that he told her what the mission was.

I wonder if the printer's name might be printed on the back of the booklet?????? If so it will hopefully say Acme Printing??????

Great to hear from you
Julie

Hi,
The panoramic photos that were given to the landing craft crews were not really postcards.

They were a series of photos joined together and put in a booklet. They opened out concertina style. Size was around 8 x 5 inches.

Not sure how many in total existed but there were at least 14 different booklets that covered the coast from Trouville to the Cherbourg area.

Cover of a book and sample photo attached.

Thanks for posting that link CEE. I had always wondered where they had ended up.

Regards

Danny

View attachment 75795 View attachment 75796

 

Hi again Danny,

I don't suppose you know of anywhere that holds copies of the booklets?
If they are the 'postcards' my mother talks of then copies of them would make a lovely addition to my family history collection and information!

Kind regards
Julie

Hi,
The panoramic photos that were given to the landing craft crews were not really postcards.

They were a series of photos joined together and put in a booklet. They opened out concertina style. Size was around 8 x 5 inches.

Not sure how many in total existed but there were at least 14 different booklets that covered the coast from Trouville to the Cherbourg area.

Cover of a book and sample photo attached.

Thanks for posting that link CEE. I had always wondered where they had ended up.

Regards
Danny

View attachment 75795 View attachment 75796

 

Hi PsyWar.Org (????),

I'm feeling a little uneducated!... I don't know what SOE stands for :mellow: ... I have a handy list of abbeviations in my bookmarks though here and my guess is that SOE stands for 'Special Operations Executive'?????????

As far as Acme Printing Co/Company/Works/whatever... I've found nothing to suggest a connection between the company and the fictional company from the Roadrunners cartoons.... YET!

Thank you for your offer to have a look through your files and I look forward to hearing from you

Kind regards
Julie

Julie, if the postcards were purely sillouettes of the coastline that does make more sense. If the outlines were concealed within another picture on the postcard then it does start to sound a little unusual.

Acme printing company is ringing a bell in the back of my mind though. I want to say there could be an SOE connection. I'm sure I've read a reference to an ACME company in an SOE file at some point, as the first thing it makes me think of is the Road Runner cartoons! I'll have a quite dig around in my files...

 

Julie,

I came across a a half page devoted to the beach front photos in D-Day - The Illustrated History by Stephen Badsey. Here's part of the caption for that and another photo (not included here) showing a variety of collected material

For the invasion to succeed, intimate knowledge of the Normandy coastline was essential and, as once "Top Secret" documents show, was meticulously gathered...

Nothing new there, of course, but thought it might be of interest.

 

That's fantistic Cee

I shall nip straight over to Amazon/ebay etc for a look-see for the book.
I wonder where I can get a look-see at the booklets? British War Museum maybe?

Could you tell me where you found the images you attached to your message?

It'd be lovely to get a print of the booklet that I could turn into a framed print for my mum's wall.........

Happy Monday to you!

Julie

 

Julie,

Actually the full title is D-Day: From the Normandy Beaches to the Liberation of France and can be found at Amazon. The cover there is different from the one my Mother has which is the 94 edition. It's a big picture book basically and was a bit of a wrestling match getting into the scanner ...

D-Day: From the Normandy Beaches to the Liberation of France - Amazon.UK

There is only one page dedicated to the subject and the information provided is not very detailed.

I'm not sure where you could see samples of the originals .... IWM possibly?

The best I can do is email you a 300 dpi tiff scan of the booklet and you could take it into a photo shop on a CD and have a print made. It won't be the greatest and would look something like the attachment which has been straightened.

Someone might have a better Idea ... ?