Destruction in Normandy

By e.mail a friend sent me a series of photos of Normandy, France. Each frame showed a pair of pictures: on the left a black and white made during World War II, on the right colored photos made recently with the camera in exactly the same spot.

I surmise – that is, guess – that the black and whites were made by a U.S. Army photographer to record our troops as they entered villages in Normandy following the landings on the beaches in June, 1944. Every photo shows American soldiers, armed with guns and marching in double files or riding in jeeps through shattered towns. These were the men who fought the Germans across Normandy in the summer and fall of 1944. In the background are buildings showing damage from bombs and shells during the fierce battles of that bloody campaign.

In a few of the 1944 photos houses and shops show very little damage. In the color photos American soldiers walking two by two with their packs and guns are replaced by shiny new cars.

However, in most of the old pictures the buildings have windows without glass and roofs blown off. Many look like empty shells. What surprised me in the companion color photos was that there is no new construction. The buildings are the same, completely restored. Broken windows are repaired with all new glass. New roofs are in traditional tiles.

In the wartime photo a church lost its roof and a large portion of the high brick gable of its facade. The new photo shows the front of the church restored with brickwork exactly matching the original. These Normandy villages look just as they must have looked in 1939, as if there never was that devastating war.

Recently here in Dallas a church was damaged by a tornado. Will it be repaired? No, it will be torn down. The church is asking for donations to build a big, new church.

When my family lived in Irving in the 1960's, the Dallas Cowboys built a new stadium which was proclaimed as the most modern football facility ever built. This year the Cowboys moved to an even bigger and grander stadium in Arlington. Ticket prices are astronomical; parking near the stadium costs $50 for each game. Experts are installing dynamite in the 1960's stadium. The television sports reporter says it will take only one big blast to destroy it completely. Spectators are invited to come watch.

Unlike the French, Americans want everything new and up-to-date. This demonstrates American enterprise, not treasuring the past but tearing things down to make way for the future. That’s the right way to do things, even if we go into debt to do it. Aren’t we the smart ones?