Grandcamp-Maisy monument.wmv
The world peace monument in Grandcamp-Maisy Normandy France.
World Peace Statue, Grandchamp-Maisy, Normandy
Perhaps the most beautiful memorial in all of Normandy the World Peace Statue, located in Granchamp-Maisy, a small village close to Pointe du Hoc.
As a relatively new memorial it did not feature in any guide books and when I drove up to it my jaw dropped on first seeing it glint in the sun.
No commentary on this one but thought I should upload it because the statue is simply amazing. The Statue de la Paix was erected on behalf of the Chinese World Peace Foundation on the 60th anniversary of D-Day in 2004.
Also featured at the end is the memorial to Sgt Frank Peregory, a Normandy Medal of Honor recipient.
Want to travel to this location but do not know how to find it? Battlefields By GPS ( has self-drive tours of Normandy with full GPS packages for Garmin sat nav devices.
Please take a look at Video History Today , the first web site to offer unique collections of re-usable original video clips designed for teachers and students.
Peace D Day statue by Chinese artist unveilled
1. Wide shot of statue
2. Artist Yao Yuan (with beard) and officials unveil bottom of the statue
3. Yao and officials stand on the statue waiving China's flag
4. Sign for statue of peace
5. Cutaway soldiers
6. Various shots of statue
7. Wide shot of ceremony and people looking at statue
8. SOUNDBITE: (Mandarin) Yao Yuan, Artist:
The thousand wars took place in the last 5,000 years in this world, only 15 years without war record. Peace is very precious to mankind. The reason we made this 'Peace Goddess' statue is to extend the will of mankind to enable us to realise world peace.
9. Cutaway British and Chinese flags
10. SOUNDBITE: (Mandarin) Yao Yuan, Artist:
This year is the 60th anniversary of Normandy landing. The period of 60 years means a macro-circulation for the Chinese people, a transmigration loop in human history and a very important period. We remember that a miserable war took place 60 years ago, a war which was stopped with a war and where peace prevailed. Now if we can set up the Peace Goddess statue at Normandy, then we could make peace, appeal for peace, call for peace.
11. Cutaway US flag
12. SOUNDBITE: (Mandarin) Yao Yuan, Artist:
I am happy because my work expresses my mind, it also expresses the mind of people all over the world including Chinese people, French people and American people etc, so I am happy. At the same time I am at peace, I was brought up in China where I was long time cultivated and nurtured by the civil thought of peace is top precious, so I can produce this work. It would have been impossible for this work to be here without the intelligence and hard working of the Chinese workers, nor without support and help from people all over the world. So it does not only belong to me, but to all of mankind and the whole world.
13. Cutaway US flag
14. SOUNDBITE: (Mandarin) Yao Yuan, Artist:
I am happy because my work expresses my mind, it also expresses the mind of people all over the world, including Chinese people, French
people and American people, so I am happy. At the same time I am at peace. I was brought up in China where I was for a long time cultivated and nurtured by the civil thought of peace being too precious, so I can produce this work. It would have been impossible for this work to be here without the intelligence and hard working of the Chinese workers, nor without support and help from people all over the world. So it does not only belong to me, but to all of mankind and the whole world.
15. Statue
STORYLINE:
A statue of the World Peace Goddess by Chinese artist Yao Yuan has gone on display near Omaha beach in Normandy to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the amphibious Allied landings in France.
The 10-metre-high statue was erected on the Vierville-sur-Mer road on the outskirts of the village Grandcamp-Maisy, just before Pointe Du Hoc, or Omaha beach, on Thursday.
On June 6, 1944, soldiers from the British Commonwealth and the United States successfully landed on Omaha beach.
The operation - a turning point in the Second World War - is known by its code name 'D-Day'.
Grandcamp-Maisy was the site of the famous early morning battle on June 6th, 1944, when US Army Rangers scaled cliffs at Point du Hoc to eliminate German artillery positions.
Yao Yuan, the creator of the sculpture, is one of China's most famous artists.
After being condemned to factory work during the Cultural Revolution, he has decided to devote his life to the cause of world peace.
He donated other statues to the people of Korea in 1995 and to Russia in 2000.
Yuan created the original World Peace Goddess - a woman with outstretched arms releasing a dove - in 2001. It now dominates a central square in the Chinese capital, Beijing.
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D-Day BattleBus Tour in Normandy, France - Part 10
Get that road! And loose that statue!
US veterans lay wreath at statue of Frank Peregory
Pointe du Hoce, Normandy
1. Pan of former battlefield
2. Beach
3. Various of US visitors walking around field
4. Various of French military on patrol
5. French military with binoculars
Grandcamp-Maisy
6. French boy waving US flags while a bus of US veterans passes
7. US D-Day veterans exit bus
8. US vet on wheelchair
9. US veterans looking around
10. US veteran crying and holding his wife
11. SOUNDBITE: (English) George Schultz, US Veteran from Michigan:
It's a wonder how I am alive today. I think about it very often. My only reason for staying alive was that I had a lady waiting back home to marry.
12. US veteran lays wreath at monument to Frank Peregory (US 20th Infantry division)
13. US veteran saluting
14. SOUNDBITE: (English) John Barnes, US veteran from New York City:
I am privileged to be here and privileged to come back. I brought my grandson to tell him what happened 60 years ago. It is important for him to know.
15. French citizens from Grandcamp-Maisy applauding veterans
16. Various of US rangers veterans walking in town
17. Current US rangers marching behind veterans
STORYLINE:
The heroic actions of one American D-Day ranger were remembered on Friday in a ceremony attended by his war-time comrades and the current inhabitants of a town he helped to free from Nazi occupation.
More than 70 veterans from the US Rangers and several hundred US visitors attended a wreath-laying ceremony at the National Guard Monument to honour D-Day hero Frank Peregory.
During the fighting at Grandcamp on 8 June 1944, Peregory single-handedly destroyed the strong German position that had paralysed the 3rd Battalion's advance, allowing US soldiers to liberate the town of Grandcamp-Maisy.
Sergeant Peregory attacked the enemy with one hand grenade and a bayonet, forcing 35 German soldiers to surrender.
For his conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty, Sergeant Peregory, who was killed later in action, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honour.
The monument is at the eastern gate of Grandcamp in Normandy.
On Friday, many of the town's residents turned out to salute the US veterans, as well as to remember Frank Peregory.
It was an emotional moment for those veterans present as they remembered their fallen comrades.
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MAISY BATTERY - NORMANDY 2007
Some footage of the Maisy battery which lay undiscovered for over 60 years.... It is a liitle hard to find, but worth a visit. Located southwest of Maisy, at a place called La Martinière, this army battery was composed of four 105-mm guns. Just before D-Day, three of these guns were placed in casemates, the last one remaining in its open-air pit. As featured in BBC2 Timewatch with Richard Hammond.
LOCATION:
Rénovation urbaine Blanc Misseron
Omaha Beach
Der amerikanische Landesektor Omaha Beach während des D-Day zwischen Colleville-sur-Mer, St.-Laurent-sur-Mer und Vierville-sur-Mer.
2012 : Tribute to Norman B. Clark, canadian soldier KIA on August 9, 1944 - WBS
Tribute to Norman Bailey CLARK, soldier of Royal Canadian Artillery, killed on August 8, 1944, in Normandy, FRANCE. He's buried in The Canadian Military Cemetery of Beny sur Mer, Normandy, FRANCE.
Gauthier Hebbelynck, represntative of Britsh Columbia Regiment for Belgium, Netherland and France read the last letter written by Norman B. Clark in front of his tomb...
We never forget...
We will remember him...