The end of the school year brings joy over completing the school year. It also brings a sense of accomplishment and the start of summer.

It is the beginning and an ending. Saying goodbye to classmates, teachers and friends you may not see over the summer, but also anticipating the adventures you may have before the beginning of another school year.

Looking back at older photos of the last day of school with todays photos you see how little things have changed . Enjoy the photos and let me know if you have any comments, questions or ideas.

Posted by Paul McCardell at 3:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

This past Memorial Day weekend was the traditional opening of the travel season down to the ocean. I was thinking about life before the Cheasapeake Bay Bridge, how people took the Sandy Point Matapeake Ferry and before that the Annapolis-to-Claiborne Ferry. The days of the Sandy Point Matpeake Ferry came to a close with the opening of the Bay Bridge on July 30, 1952. It was a 40-minute trip between the Eastern and Western shores of the bay, during which one could buy something to drink or eat. Or you could read or just stretch out and enjoy the ride.

There are still reminders of the old ferry system at Matapeake State Park on Kent Island. The old ferry pier is now a fishing pier and the ferry terminal building was renovated and turned into the Matapeake Clubhouse.

The Chesapeake Bay Ferry lives on in Washington state. The Gov. Herbert R O'Conor was sold in 1953 for $301,000 and is operated by the Washington State Ferry System. She was renamed the M.V. Rhododendron after the Washington State Flower and is nicknamed the "Rhody." She has undergone extensive renovations during her long career .

The Gov. Harry W. Nice was also bought by Washington state for $ 226,000, but she hasn't been as lucky. She was renamed the M.V. Olympic .

Another Maryland ferry boat, the M.V. Gov. Emerson C. Harrington II was sold to Lake Champlain Transportation Company in Burlington, Vermont for $25,693.98 and renamed the Andirondak she is still in service today.

The bay ferries didn't eliminate backups, but it was a slower pace. There is talk every once in a while of returning ferries to the bay or even building a third bay bridge. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think about that idea.

Here's a link to a photo gallery about the ferries.

Here are some more details on the ferry fleet...
M.V. Gov. Herbert R. O'Conor could carry 894 passengers and 75 vehicles. She entered service in 1947 and is still in service today in Washington state.
M.V. Gov Harry W. Nice could carry 792 passengers and 68 vehicles. She entered service in 1938.
M.V. John M. Dennis could carry 880 passengers and 65 vehicles. She entered service 1929 and was sold to a Venezuelan tranport company for $101.000 in 1953.
M.V. B. Frank Sherman was built in 1926 and entered service in Maryland in 1948. She was sold for $27,440 to a New York company .
M.V. Gov. Emerson C. Harrington II could hold 256 passengers and 32 vehicles. She was built in 1913 and entered service in Maryland in 1938. She is in service today on Lake Champlain.

Posted by Paul McCardell at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

June 6, 2009 is the 65th anniversary of the Allied invasion of the Normandy coast, which marked the beginning of the liberation of France and the defeat of Nazi Germany. The long-awaited second front was opened.

The largest Armada of men and ships ever assembled would breach the Atlantic wall at great cost and sacrifice.

The Baltimore Sun on June 6, 1944 published an extra edition with the headline, "ALLIES INVADING FRANCE - TROOPS LAND IN NORMANDY." The Evening Sun headline, pictured above, read, "Invasion 9 Miles Inland - Opposition Weak, Losses Below Expectations." Additional reports were topped by, "Sunpapers Men Report - O'Neil - H-Hour, McCardell - In Air and Watson - Tactics." This headline referred to The Sun's war correspondents Thomas O'Neil, chief of London Bureau, and Lee McCardell ( no relation ) and Mark S. Watson, the paper's military analyst.

Another war correspondent, Holbrook Bradley, was aboard a ship with the 29th Infantry Division waiting to go ashore. Bradley had covered the 29th Infantry Division since 1943 during their training in England and following them across Europe. He wrote a book called " War Correspondent From D-Day to Elbe." He is the Baltimore Sun's last living WW II correspondent.

While Lee McCardell flew over the beaches in Baltimore-built Martin Marauders with the 9th Air Force and sent back his dispatches through military censors to the Baltimore Sun . Holbrook Bradley waited on ship while part of the 29th to which he was assigned was waiting to go ashore.

The Baltimore Sun didn't run its first eyewitness accounts of the 29th on the beach until June 10, 1944, and that came from Baltimore News-Post and INS Correspondent Louis Azrael, a well-respected journalist who, like Bradley, ended up following the 29th across Europe. Azreal's first dispatch was written on paper found beside a dead German soldier since his own paper was ruined when he leapt from a landing barge. Holbrook Bradley's first dispatchs appeared in The Sun on June 13, and on June 14 he wrote a front-page story headlined, "Bradley Describes 29th Division Landing On Normandy Beachhead." It was dated June 7.

Bradley reported that landing craft nearby still had to dodge occasional shells from German batteries. "The scene through which we passed was one of the most desolate we've ever seen. The few houses along the shore were almost blown to bits, evidence of the heavy Navy gunfire early on the first day. Up the hills, German concrete emplacements were completely blasted of the ground, and mazes of barbed-wire entanglements were ripped through huge sections." Bradley saw many bodies, some that had never made it ashore. "Those first few hours on the beach must have been a living hell."

Bradley was equipped with a camera and used it that day to take photos from offshore on D-Day and from the beach on the second day. There were many photos of that day that live on, taken by the US.Coast Guard, Navy and Army Signal Corps and others. Some of the most famous were taken by Robert Capa.

On June 6 we remember the sacrifices made not just that day and not just on that beach but all the places were men and women have fought and still fight for our freedom .

I hope you look at the photo gallery and I also attached other links related to D-Day .

The U.S. Army D-Day site

Military History Online's D-Day page

The D-Day Museum

WGBH TV's D-Day page

Overview of Operation Overlord

Posted by Paul McCardell at 6:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)