description
Object description
image: View over the Route d'Orleans crowded with thousands of people
Label
On 6 June 1944, Gross accompanied the Royal Army Service Corps who were crossing the Channel to Normandy for D-Day.
Gross landed at Gold Beach with the 50th (Northumbrian) Division and followed them to Bayeux, where he drew the liberation of the town. He
managed to acquire a revamped German car from his friends in the Royal Army Service Corps, which allowed him to get close to the action,
especially on the Normandy coast, Caen and Brittany.
In late August 1944, Gross returned to Paris. On 25 August, he drew General Leclerc's Division entering Paris. His car was fired on as they
crossed the Boulevard St. Germain. When they spotted two tanks in flames in the Louvre gardens and men crouching around the bridge over the
Seine, they turned around and fled back to the Porte d'Orleans.
History note
War Artists Advisory Committee commission
Inscription
Anthony Gross 25th August 1944
