Pre-war postcards (Normandy)

A nice collection of pre-war (NON-WATERMARKED) postcards of many towns and villages of Normandy:

Cartes postales anciennes

Note: some locations have multiple pages.

 

Beautiful!

 

Superb old photographs.Photographs and postcards such as these were requested by the War Office to build up intelligence on areas in France before the 1944 invasion.Coastal photographs were high on the list of wanted photographs.

Had an autumn holiday in a hamlet between Barenton and Ger near to the Foret de Mortain....recognised Ger.It is merely a village, the route de Flers is taken from one side of the small roundabout.I think that the building on the right is still a bar.

As regards the Battle of Mortain.On the Barenton to Domfront road is a recent memorial erected by a survivor, in the memory of comrades lost when a US armoured vehicle was hit at the spot when Mortain was relieved and US forces were pushing the Germans back up the road to Domfront.

 

Superb T&N Owen!

 

Sourdeval,I know the place.There is a family entertainment centre/park at Bellfontaine, south of Sourdeval...gave it a bypass.

Hoped to see a prewar postcard of Villers Bocage with its wide main street...character destroyed in the tank battle of the summer of 1944...not in the collection.

 

Forgive me for nipping in on a thread clearly marked pre-war Normandy postcards but we oldies have this compulsion to record things as we think of them and Owen's "Then & Now" pic of an old church rang too many bells.

On Page 30 of my Army Album I have this old postcard of Ulm Munster and on the same page are snaps that I took on my Jerry Leica camera, sadly long gone.

Evidence shown below

Ron

 

Crikey - there's an even better site here:

Le Calvados

 

Nice find Grimmy. I know some of those places well but it is difficult to id some of them after the battles in Normandy.
Villers Bocage in particular is almost impossible to recognise since the whole middle of the town was severely bombed after the tank battle. Most of the road names are the same though and some of the outskirts were not too badly damaged.

 

Somewhat grainy, but you can just make it out.

The 'Then' is Beny Bocage, August 1st, 1944.

 

Villers Bocage during and after the bombing.

 

Palais de Justice, Caen.

Before, During, During and After.

 

Good one Neil - one up on a Then & Now.

 

I should add that some of the postcards were taken during WW2 and show damaged buildings (eg Evrecy, Caen, Cheux, Villers Bocage and possibly others)

 

Hotel Moderne, Caen.

Before (spot the plaque on the corner pillar)
During (close-up of the same pillar) and
After

 

Rue Montair-Poissonnerie, Caen.

Before During and After.

Close, but no cigar

 

The Church of St Pierre, Caen.

Before and During.

 

Tinchebray.

Before and During.

 

Caen, Porte Saint Pierre:

Before,
During (allied prisonners) and
After