Any of you guys good at recognizing statues

[1pLUs44]

This is a picture of my grandfather at some point during the second world war. He was in the 45th Infantry Division from the beginning of the war to the end (G Co. 180th Infantry regiment)

My dad and I are finally starting to put together some of his old war letters and photos and we can't seem to find out where this picture was taken. I googled around but I haven't seen anything familiar and I was wondering if anybody may be familiar with where this statue is located so we can have a good idea of when this picture was taken.


Edit: There appears to be some kind of writing on the statue (Le Lura, or something like that) that I thought I should point out. I searched the phrase but still couldn't find anything.

[ALFAMEGA51]

Wow that is really cool sir!!  ,i'll be sure to let you know if i can find anything, thanks for sharing   

[Plawranc]

Did some digging Pluss.

Found out some pretty interesting stuff.

That photo, by the Phrase and the Architecture, and by looking at the 45th's service record. Was probably taken during Operation Dragoon, The invasion of the Southern Coast of France (ordered by Churchill) after the Italian Campaign.

If its not there its definitely Italy somewhere. Its Christian definitely, possibly near a building of official function like a Church or Monastic Library or maybe Town Hall.

My guess would be one of three places.

Comiso in Sicily, Salerno in Italy, Or Grenoble in Southern France. Or at least towns and counties in the area of those places. The Tiered Construction of the building behind him suggests French though. But Im not an expert.

Start looking near or around one of those places.

Hope I Helped, probably didn't though

 

[100Coogn]

It kinda looks like there's some writing on that statute.  
Keep us posted if find out where this was taken.  Love a good mystery.

Coogan

Edit:  didn't notice the OP's edit, before I replied.
Good luck.

[coombz]

It kinda looks like there's some writing on that statute. 
Keep us posted if find out where this was taken.  Love a good mystery.

Coogan

yeah it means 'The Lura'

happy to help

[zack1234]

Building look like UK to me.  

There is Lion n Chicago with the same buildings as well.

It looks like someone is on its back.

[MiloMorai]

There is Lion n Chicago with the same buildings as well.

It looks like someone is on its back.

There are 2 Lions at the Art Institute of Chicago.

 Lions at the Art Institute of Chicago

Flanking the entrance to the Art Institute of Chicago, Edward Kemeys' lions are among the city’s most beloved and recognizable sculptures. A largely self-taught artist who became famous for his sculptures of wild animals, Edward Kemeys (1843-1907), established a studio in Chicago in 1892. The following year, the World’s Columbian Exposition in Jackson Park showcased twelve of his sculptures in plaster including massive jaguars, bears, and bison. At the fair, Kemeys’ lions were placed at the entrance to the Fine Arts Palace (now the Museum of Science and Industry). Mrs. Henry Field donated the funds to recast the lions in bronze and install them in front of the Art Institute’s new building in Grant Park in 1894.


Prior to their official dedication, the Chicago Tribune reported that Kemeys said that the lions were "conceived as guarding the building.” He explained that the south lion is “attracted by something in the distance which he is closely watching,” and that the north lion “has has back up, and is ready for a roar and a spring.” Kemeys was considered the leader of the American animaliers, a movement that began in France in the mid- nineteenth century in which artists studied living animals to produce their sculptures.
http://www.explorechicago.org/city/en/things_see_do/attractions/park_district/lions__in_grant_park.html

[RTHolmes]

It looks like someone is on its back.

biggest clue right there, well done Watson!

[Masherbrum]

It is one of the statues on the Pont Alexandre III bridge in Paris.   

[Scherf]

I would have guessed the Feldherrnhalle in Munich, but on closer inspection I think not.

There is a French department called "Le Jura", closest thing that springs to mind, apparently there's also a Swiss canton by that name. Web says the 45th ID passed through Besancon, which is the capital of the Jura department. Architecture seems a touch grand for Besancon though, it's a country town.

Alternatively, La Lura is a river in Italy, it seems, up in the hills north of Milan.

[Plawranc]

It is one of the statues on the Pont Alexandre III bridge in Paris.   

The buildings surrounding it don't match. But very similar though.

[quig]

(Image removed from quote.)


This is a picture of my grandfather at some point during the second world war. He was in the 45th Infantry Division from the beginning of the war to the end (G Co. 180th Infantry regiment)

My dad and I are finally starting to put together some of his old war letters and photos and we can't seem to find out where this picture was taken. I googled around but I haven't seen anything familiar and I was wondering if anybody may be familiar with where this statue is located so we can have a good idea of when this picture was taken.


Edit: There appears to be some kind of writing on the statue (Le Lura, or something like that) that I thought I should point out. I searched the phrase but still couldn't find anything.

Looks a bit like Holkham Hall



Maybe a start...

[MarineUS]

Can't wait to see what all turns up

[1pLUs44]

Looks a bit like Holkham Hall

(Image removed from quote.)

Maybe a start...

That one and the one at the Art Institute look very similar, but there are some differences I can still see (tail length/position, also it seems the lion is at the top of a staircase instead of the bottom of one).

 I'm looking far and wide at this point. I might contact the 45th Infantry Div. Museum historian to see if he might recognize the area. We took a road trip up there about a month ago and got the pleasure of being invited into the library room and got to look at some old after action reports and we looked in a 1938 Division year book (I think that's what it's called) and we've been trying to organize it and send it to the guy. He also talked to us about a new book that a fellow by the name of Alex Kershaw wrote that's about to be released and explained the story behind it (Sounds like a really good one too!) and we'll soon have our own copy once it's released.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Liberator-Soldiers-500-Day-Odyssey/dp/0449012638


The true story of the bloodiest and most dramatic march to victory of the Second World War: the battlefield odyssey of a maverick U.S. Army officer and his infantry unit as they fought for over five hundred days to liberate Europe - from the invasion of Italy to the gates of Dachau.

   From July 10, 1943, the date of the Allied landing in Sicily, to May 8, 1945, when victory in Europe was declared – the entire time it took to liberate Europe – no regiment saw more action, and no single platoon, company, or battalion endured worse, than the ones commanded by Felix Sparks, who had entered the war as a greenhorn second lieutenant of the 157th “Eager for Duty” Infantry Regiment of the 45th “Thunderbird” Division.  Sparks and his fellow Thunderbirds fought longest and hardest to defeat Hitler, often against his most fanatical troops, when the odds on the battlefield were even and the fortunes of the Allies hung in the balance – and when the difference between defeat and victory was a matter of character, not tactics or armor.

   Drawing on extensive interviews with Sparks and dozens of his men, as well as over five years of research in Europe and in archives across the US, historian Alex Kershaw masterfully recounts one of the most inspiring and heroic journeys in military history.  Over the course of four amphibious invasions, Sparks rose from captain to colonel as he battled from the beaches of Sicily through the mountains of Italy and France, ultimately enduring bitter and desperate winter combat against the diehard SS on the Fatherland’s borders.  Though he lost all of his company to save the Allied beach-head at Anzio and an entire battalion in the dark forests of the Vosges, Sparks miraculously survived the long bloody march across Europe and was selected to lead a final charge to Bavaria to hunt down Adolf Hitler.

   In the dying days of the Third Reich, Sparks and his men crossed the last great barrier in the West, the Rhine, only to experience some of the most intense street fighting and close combat suffered by Americans in WWII.  When they finally arrived at the gates of Dachau, Hitler’s first and most notorious concentration camp, the Thunderbirds confronted scenes that robbed the mind of reason.  With victory within grasp, Sparks confronted the ultimate test of his humanity: after all he had faced, could he resist the urge to wreak vengeance on the men who had caused untold suffering and misery?

   Written with the narrative drive and vivid immediacy of Kershaw’s previous bestselling books about American infantrymen in WWII, The Liberator is a story for the ages, an intensely human and dramatic account of one of history’s greatest warriors and his unheralded role in America’s finest achievement – the defeat of Nazi Germany.

[Masherbrum]

It is one of the statues on the Pont Alexandre III bridge in Paris.  

To further expound on this.   I cracked open an old book from college, in the basement.   That appears to be a Bronze statue of "Lion Qui Marche" by Antoine-Louis Barye, or at least a version of it.