France Day 6 - Normandy
This morning we headed to Arromanches to see the D-Day sites in Normandy. We arrived at Arromanches around noon. I have learned a ton about WWII today and over the past few days as we've been reading to prepare for this part of our trip. I would love to learn more. It's almost embarrassing how much I didn't/don't know.
We started with "Port Winston" in Arromanches where the Allies created a temporary, man-made harbor out of 115 prefabricated football field sized cement blocks called "mulberries" towed across the English Channel by 500 tugboats. They were sunk 1.5 miles off shore to create a 4 mile long breakwater. Then engineers set up floating pierheads with extendable legs that went down to the ocean floor to create stable platforms to unload their supply ships. Then they linked these to shore with mile-long floating roads made of concrete and steel pontoons. It was incredible how they did it! We also went to the D-day Landing Museum there.
Heading East along the coast we went to Longues-sur-Mer Gun Battery where four German casements (3 with guns intact) hunker down at the end of a country road. These bunkers are the only original coastal artillery guns remaining in place in the D-Day region. You could see the pock-marks from the gunfire and artillery to try to penetrate the bunkers.
We hugged the coastline down to the WWII Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial above Omaha Beach. (It took us a few wrong turns to find it). There is a very good Visitor's Center with museum displays and videos with interviews. Walking out to the Cemetery and Memorial is emotional as you see 9,387 gravestones marking the remains of the American soldiers buried here and think about the magnitude and impact of this war. I imagined what that would look like if each of those men (only 4 women are buried here) were standing there. It is so overwhelming to think about the courage they had to have to do what they did. We were there as taps played and they lowered the American flag. Most, but not all, of the people throughout the entire cemetery stopped and turned with their hand over their heart, towards the flag. I had to choke back the tears as I had already done so many times today. I was so proud to be an American. Another writer described it so perfectly:
There are certain experiences in ones life where no matter how profound the prose or vivid the descriptions they simply cannot be captured in writing. It has been 70 years since the D-Day invasion on the Normandy beaches. Still, standing on the windswept cliffs of Pointe du Hoc.....walking on the hallowed ground of Omaha Beach.....standing in front of over 9300 limestone crosses in the American cemetery.....the power of the valor and sacrifice of that day hangs in the air. Just to be there.......to pay tribute to those who died scaling those 100 foot cliffs or crawling under a hail of machine gun fire from the landing craft to the beaches.....it changes you. It gives you pause. It fills you with a sense of pride in the courage of these young Americans and profoundly moves you as you take in the vast number of them who lost their lives.
Next we drove down to Omaha Beach and walked out to the water's edge at low tide. I read that the reason they chose June 6th was because they needed 3 specific things to make the invasion successful: a rising tide at dawn with a full moon. June 5-7 was the only time those three coincided. The weather pushed the invasion back 24 hours to June 6th. Walking out to the beach made me appreciate even more the challenges that American soldiers faced on D-Day. Imagine you're wasted from a lack of sleep and nervous anticipation. Now you're packed with 35 other soldiers cheek-to-jowl in a small, flat bottom boat, seasick as you approach the beach. Your water-soaked pack feels like a boulder. The boat's front ramp drops open and you run for your life for 500 yards through water and sand onto the open beach, dodging machine gun fire raining from above and mines scattered across the beach. I read that the Germans had planted over 4 million mines on the beaches of Normandy. The German machine guns could fire 1,200 rounds per minute.
We headed back to our simple country hotel and watched Saving Private Ryan. It is a hard movie to watch because it attempts to portray an accurate picture of D-Day and the war. But it was so powerful after visiting those sites today.
Inscribed on the walls of the Memorial at the American Cemetery were these words:
We started with "Port Winston" in Arromanches where the Allies created a temporary, man-made harbor out of 115 prefabricated football field sized cement blocks called "mulberries" towed across the English Channel by 500 tugboats. They were sunk 1.5 miles off shore to create a 4 mile long breakwater. Then engineers set up floating pierheads with extendable legs that went down to the ocean floor to create stable platforms to unload their supply ships. Then they linked these to shore with mile-long floating roads made of concrete and steel pontoons. It was incredible how they did it! We also went to the D-day Landing Museum there.
Heading East along the coast we went to Longues-sur-Mer Gun Battery where four German casements (3 with guns intact) hunker down at the end of a country road. These bunkers are the only original coastal artillery guns remaining in place in the D-Day region. You could see the pock-marks from the gunfire and artillery to try to penetrate the bunkers.
We hugged the coastline down to the WWII Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial above Omaha Beach. (It took us a few wrong turns to find it). There is a very good Visitor's Center with museum displays and videos with interviews. Walking out to the Cemetery and Memorial is emotional as you see 9,387 gravestones marking the remains of the American soldiers buried here and think about the magnitude and impact of this war. I imagined what that would look like if each of those men (only 4 women are buried here) were standing there. It is so overwhelming to think about the courage they had to have to do what they did. We were there as taps played and they lowered the American flag. Most, but not all, of the people throughout the entire cemetery stopped and turned with their hand over their heart, towards the flag. I had to choke back the tears as I had already done so many times today. I was so proud to be an American. Another writer described it so perfectly:
There are certain experiences in ones life where no matter how profound the prose or vivid the descriptions they simply cannot be captured in writing. It has been 70 years since the D-Day invasion on the Normandy beaches. Still, standing on the windswept cliffs of Pointe du Hoc.....walking on the hallowed ground of Omaha Beach.....standing in front of over 9300 limestone crosses in the American cemetery.....the power of the valor and sacrifice of that day hangs in the air. Just to be there.......to pay tribute to those who died scaling those 100 foot cliffs or crawling under a hail of machine gun fire from the landing craft to the beaches.....it changes you. It gives you pause. It fills you with a sense of pride in the courage of these young Americans and profoundly moves you as you take in the vast number of them who lost their lives.
Next we drove down to Omaha Beach and walked out to the water's edge at low tide. I read that the reason they chose June 6th was because they needed 3 specific things to make the invasion successful: a rising tide at dawn with a full moon. June 5-7 was the only time those three coincided. The weather pushed the invasion back 24 hours to June 6th. Walking out to the beach made me appreciate even more the challenges that American soldiers faced on D-Day. Imagine you're wasted from a lack of sleep and nervous anticipation. Now you're packed with 35 other soldiers cheek-to-jowl in a small, flat bottom boat, seasick as you approach the beach. Your water-soaked pack feels like a boulder. The boat's front ramp drops open and you run for your life for 500 yards through water and sand onto the open beach, dodging machine gun fire raining from above and mines scattered across the beach. I read that the Germans had planted over 4 million mines on the beaches of Normandy. The German machine guns could fire 1,200 rounds per minute.
We headed back to our simple country hotel and watched Saving Private Ryan. It is a hard movie to watch because it attempts to portray an accurate picture of D-Day and the war. But it was so powerful after visiting those sites today.
Inscribed on the walls of the Memorial at the American Cemetery were these words:
1941 - 1945
IN PROUD REMEMBRANCE
OF THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF HER SONS
AND IN HUMBLE TRIBUTE TO THEIR SACRIFICES
THIS MEMORIAL HAS BEEN ERECTED BY
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A leftover piece of the artificial harbor, Port Winston.
A "Higgins Boat." These were used to unload the troops onto the beach during the D-Day invasion.
A piece of the floating roadway with a bulldozer on it. They connected these pieces to form mile-long roads from the platforms to the beach to unload the supplies from the large ships.
A German gun battery at Longues-sur-Mer.
When the Germans abandoned a few of these, they left telegraph poles in them to try to trick the Allies.
The lower bulkhead on the beach at Longues-sur-Mer. There are two levels with slits the Germans could shoot out of. The concrete is over 2 feet thick.
The Normandy Coast as seen from the lower gun battery.
The inscription on the Memorial at the Normandy American Cemetery.
The overlook above Omaha Beach at the Normandy Cemetery.
Omaha Beach from the water at low tide.
Omaha Beach.
Omaha Beach is very wide as well, stretching for 5 miles!
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