D-day and M1 Garand Display "Ike's Gamble"

[ndvermin]

After a great trip to Normandy in 2011 to visit the historic battlefields I wanted to create a display to house my 1942 Springfield M1 Garand and also do something as a tribute to the men of D-Day which is a favorite subject of study of mine.

I call it Ike's Gamble in tribute to the tough call that Ike made to send the men in on 6/6/1944 amidst bad weather and with his commanders split on the decision.

The display includes a map of the most of the main objectives for D-Day (and all the ones I visited) with small vials of sand or soil from each sacred site accompanied by the unit patches for the US, British, and Canadien forces tasked with capturing each site. Please note I am very aware that the US 29th division landed at Omaha as well but I only had room for one patch.

The cover features some D-Day artwork and black and white invasion stripes which would have been painted on all allied planes. The front has a carved patch from Eisenhower's SHAEF. (Supreme headquarters Allied Expiditionary Force). The patch itself has an interesting history if you ever care to look into it.

I hope you may find this of interest. I have other custom displays on my website - I'd be thrilled if you checked it out and gave me a "like":

https://www.facebook.com/CustomHistoricalDisplays/

[MAP]

Beautiful. I love it.

I wish I could do woodwork like that.

[ndvermin]

Thanks Map! Obviously you need the right tools but I think beyond that it's all about patience. This took me five months and I made a ton of mistakes but I was happy with how it turned out. Just give it a shot and you will be surprised what you can do.

[greatwhite]

That my friend is first class, it must be quite a size too.

[Larboard]

Congratulations, really a truly amazing piece of work!

Hopefully, we shall never forget, not just Ike of course but all the grunts who made it happen...

[Gunny Hartmann]

Very nice!....