John Sheldon's photos

Near Wray Castle, Windermere in the English Lake District.

At Vimoutiers in Normandy this German Tiger Tank from World War II stands near the place when it ran out of fuel during the Battle of the Falaise Pocket in August 1944. An American bulldozer pushed the tank into a ditch in order to clear the road. It was left in the ditch until 1975 when it was dug out, restored and placed where it is now. A fearsome weapon, a single one of these Tiger Tanks is reputed to have destroyed several enemy tanks in just 3 or 4 minutes.

A restored USA Sherman M4A1 tank, used by Polish troops in World War II and named General Maczek. It is at the Montormel Memorial Museum in Normandy. Montormel, code named Hill 262, was defended by the 1st Polish Armoured Division under General Maczek during the Battle of the Falaise Pocket in August 1944. It was of great strategic importance, to both sides. The Division held its position here and was instrumental in plugging the “Falaise Gap” escape route for retreating German troops, despite being only 1500 men strong, under equipped and short of supplies, against a foe of many thousands.

I wanted to emphasise the metal Tank Track (or Caterpillar Tread) on this vehicle and found that adopting a ‘pseudo HDR’ approach was the best way to do that. Not a technique I have ever used much but it has its place in the resources available to the picture maker. A restored World War II Churchill Tank on the Hill of Peace Memorial in Normandy. The Hill of Peace Memorial is near the World War II battle site in the Normandy Bocage that was code named Hill 112, not far from the city of Caen. It was the scene of one of the bloodiest battles in that war; carnage is the word usually used. The Memorial is not on Hill 112 itself because residual material left there in 1944 is a danger to life.

Otherwise known as the 'Corridor of Death'. In August of 1944, many thousands of German soldiers were killed or injured in the 10 km corridor that runs from Trun to Chambois, as their retreating army became trapped in what is known as the Falaise Gap or Falaise Pocket. This had been the escape route that the German commanders had been relying on in the event of a withdrawal but when it was closed off by a pincer movement of Polish, Canadian and USA troops it became a 'killing field'. Eye witnesses still alive in Chambois still find August a difficult month every year. When US General Dwight D. Eisenhower arrived at the site he said: “The battlefield at Falaise was unquestionably one of the greatest ‘killing fields’ of any of the war areas. Forty-eight hours after the closing of the Gap I was conducted through it on foot, to encounter scenes that could be described only by Dante.”

Located next to the British Commonwealth War Cemetery at Fontenay-le-Pesnel in Normandy, France, this memorial honours the men of the 49th West Riding (Yorkshire) Division of the British Army for their service and sacrifices during 1944 and 1945 in the “D-Day” invasion of Normandy. The polar bear badge motif central to this structure was adopted in 1940 when the Division was stationed in Iceland. The bear on the Memorial reflects changes to the design adopted in 1943.

… may go you or I. (Phil Ochs / Joan Baez.) Adolf Süssel (September 1914 – ? 1944) seems to have spent the first few years and the last few years of his short life in a Europe at war. We can imagine that like most people, his fate was determined by the place and time in which he was born and by his responses to whatever social engineering was in fashion. In the German Military Cemetery at La Cambe, Normandy, he shares his last resting place with more than 21,000 others, many of whose lives would have been similar; but (death being a great leveller) he also shares it with SS-Hauptsturmführer Michael Wittmann (a professional soldier who has commanded respect as a ‘Tiger Tank Ace’) and SS-Sturmbannführer Adolf Diekmann (who was responsible for one of the worst atrocities in the European Theatre of War).

In the German Military Cemetery at La Cambe, Normandy. This is the largest German war cemetery in Normandy and contains the graves of more than 21,000 German servicemen. Most of them died between June and August 1944 in the fighting following the D-Day landings. The ages of the dead range from 16 to 72 but as usual in these cemeteries the majority were young men. The sign at the entrance says: “With its melancholy rigour, it is a graveyard for soldiers not all of whom had chosen either the cause or the fight. They too have found rest in our soil of France.”

The Major Richard Winters Memorial at Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, Normandy. Major Winters inspired a TV series, Band of Brothers. He served in the 101st Airborne Division (the ‘Screaming Eagles’) and was noted for his exceptional leadership when American forces parachuted into Normandy for the D-Day invasion on 6 June 1944. He led ‘Easy Company’ a name that sits strangely with his motto ‘Hang Tough’. On the plinth: "Wars do not make men great, but they do bring out the greatness in good men. Les guerres ne font pas les grands hommes, mais elles révélent la grandeur des hommes justes;" and “In honour of Dick Winters and all those American junior officers who led the way on D-Day, June 6, 1944. May we never forget their leadership under fire.”