About myself
As long as I can rember 'history' in a broad sense intrigued me, however I got drawn to WW2 history at a young age. When I was eight years old a summer holiday to Normandy would change everything. It was the first visit of many and I was absolutely fascinated by the tanks, bunkers, museums and landing beaches. From there my interest in the history of the war kept growing and growing and any assignment at school had a WW2-theme somewhere. Because of my healthy obsession with the subject my grandfather decided to gift me a WW2 US bajonet one day that he still had laying around. This opened up a whole new world: that of collecting!
As I grew older I was drawn more and more towards the stories of those that lived through World War 2. Studying broad history is one thing, reading or listening to stories of those that were there is what brings it to life. I returned to Normandy once more in 2008, this time early June, to participate in the D-Day ceremonies. While there I was able to meet and talk to WW2 veterans and in the years since I have met numerous veterans. I feel honored and blessed to have been able to do this before this generation inevitably passes on and even call some of them my friends.
So many of these men have made an incredible impact on my life and this website is dedicated to them. We will never forget!
About normandytothebulge
Back in 2012 I started normandytothebulge.be as a project to document my encounters with WW2 veterans and a place to preserve their stories. Since then it has grown exponentially as I met more people and my collection started to grow. And although the focus might slightly shift over the years, my mission will always remain the same at its core. To tell the story of those ordinary men who went through extraordinary times and put an end to the oppression in Europe. I hope you will enjoy browsing through these little slices of history as much as I have collecting them.