Normandy Photos: World War II and Today

CAEN (L) 10 July 1944 - Residents looking after a Canadian bulldozer clearing rubble in the streets. Photo: Archives Canada (R) Photo: Patrick Elie

Historian Patrick Elie took old pictures of the rubble-strewn French city of Normandy in 1944, during the height of World War II, and painstakingly took photos of the same spot from the same general perspective:

Elie, who has devoted his life to chronicling D-Day and the effects of the war on his home country of France, worked tirelessly to find the exact locations of dramatic photographs from 1944 and then took his own photos of the modern-day sites.

WebUrbanist has more photos: Link | Check out Patrick Elie's website for more.

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Patrick Elie has done a fantastic job of making sure our past is not forgotten, while managing to show the resilence of a culture and generation. Thank you for sharing these great pictures.

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Hi Patrick, what an amazing series of photos leaving me almost breathless whilst I studied in depth the original sites, wrecked and in taters against the colourful sites of today.Although I received this in the form of an email clearly there is going to be/is a part two. Have you thought in terms of placing the street names so that people fortunate enough to be living in France could make a special trip to see those places in time we have for the most part been privileged to forget ever happened.

Very well done Patrick, I look forward to seeing the sequal.

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This series gave me the shivers, as I relived the trip from Normany to Paris as a WWII Signal Corps photographer. I have viewed it many times and applaud the photographer for a wonderful exhibit of photos.
Most of my photos in that era were sent on to London, then on to the news services. Thank you for an outstanding series.
H. Warren King, Photography Instructor for 55 years

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I was in the Normandy region (yes, it's a region) for the 50th Anniversary of the DDay landing. They may be snooty and anti-American in the big city, but in these small country towns, they REMEMBER what Americans did and they're very grateful, wonderfully nice people -- especially if you're wearing a military uniform. For example, the American (and German) cemeteries are absolutely pristine and extremely well-cared for. Better than most military cemeteries in the US, actually.