D-Day Beaches and Paratroopers
Trip Start
Apr 03, 2007
1
30
69
Trip End
Jun 16, 2007
Bayeux,
France
Monday, April 30, 2007
After checking out of the hostel I was staying at in Bayeux, I left my big pack there and headed over to the pick up point for the tour vans. The company running the tour I took is called "Battlebus", and they really did an excellent job. Our guide was named Stewart, and he was from York, England. He's been living here in Normandy for 3 years, and this is his dream job, since he has a passion for the history of WWII and D-Day. He's met a number of veterans and keeps in contact with several of them. There were 8 of us, besides the guide on the tour. We started out with a 30 minute drive to Saint-Mere-Eglise, which was the site where several paratroopers landed right smack in the town square. The night of D-Day, there was a fire in a house in the town, so the majority of the residents of the town were out trying to put out the fire, when suddenly Americans started dropping from the sky
A herd of cows on the road to Utah Beach
. Some got hung up in trees, a couple of them got hung up on the church steeple, and some landed right next to the church. Our guide told us the stories of each of the men that landed there. They still have a dummy hanging by a parachute up on the church as a tribute to that history-making night. Turns out that Saint-Mere-Eglise was the first town liberated, by the paratroopers, early in the morning of June 6, 1944. Next, we toured the Airbourne Museum there in the town. It contained similar things to the other museums I've seen, except this one had a full sized paratrooper glider and a C-47 transport plane. It was a good museum, but overall I liked the one in Bayeux better.Next, we drove towards Utah Beach. Along the way, a farmer had his herd of cows going right down the narrow lane we were on, so we had to pull out of the way for the herd to pass. Then we stopped off in the hedgerow country to see what the hedgerows looked like. These days, the cut the hedgerows back every year, so they're not exactly the same as they were in 1944, but we could get the idea. Perfect hiding place for defensive positions. Probably more US soldiers died because of the hedgerows than any other factor during the battle of Normandy.
At Utah Beach, we walked out on the beach and learned the story of Theodore Roosevelt Jr
A section of the Airbourne Museum
. How he was the oldest soldier, at 57, to step ashore that day. He deduced by seeing a red-roofed house out of its expected position, that they had landed in the wrong location and prevented a large number of troops from landing in hostile areas. Utah Beach was the most successful of the 5 beaches that day, only 30 casualties and 7 dead out of tens of thousands of men that landed that day. This was no accident, it was due to the success of the bombing runs and airbourne attacks early that morning.Omaha Beach was another story. We stopped off at Dog Green sector of Omaha Beach, which saw the heaviest fighting (depicted in the first 25 minutes of "Saving Private Ryan"). At Omaha, because of freak fog cover (extremely rare in June there), the bombers missed their targets and left the German ground defenses totally intact. When the soldiers hit the beach, they stepped off into a rain of fire. It was almost a complete disaster, at one point the commanders considered abandoning the beach completely, but decided it had to be taken to link up Utah Beach with the other 3 beaches, Gold, Juno, and Sword. Despite huge casualties and being pinned down for hours at the seawall, enough men were able to scale the bluffs to take out the German defences and allow the remaining men to get off the beach. Actually being there and seeing the bluffs, I can say that that was incredible that they were able to do it
A sheep through a hedgerow
. The bluffs are quite steep, and climbing them with gear on would have been no picnic. Walking on the beach, it's impossible to imagine what it must have been like that day, since it's such a peaceful spot today, listening to the calming sound of the waves.The most impressive place we stopped today was Pointe du Hoc. This location halfway in between Utah and Omaha Beaches had several big guns that could fire on either beach and had to be taken out. There are 100-foot cliffs below, that the Rangers had to scale on the morning to take out the guns. It's another amazing story that 167 Rangers made it to the top of the cliffs (out of some 700 that were originally planned to), but they were able to destroy the guns and hold the roads successfully. The location is left the same as it was after D-Day, with giant craters and smashed German bunkers all over the place. There's a great view in each direction from there of the nearby coastline as well. Just a neat spot, and has been designated as "virtual US soil" in commemoration.
Finally, we stopped by the American Cemetery, where some 9,000 American soldiers who died on D-Day or during the Battle of Normandy are buried. It's kept up immaculately, and I found out that this is the 2nd most visited cemetery in the world after Arlington National in Washington, DC. And 70% of the visitors are French. Any day of the year, it will be full of people, and today was no exception. This shows some level of the respect that the French have for the Americans who liberated their country.
Overall, the tour was an great experience, and I learned so much about the events and actual people involved. Now I also need to watch "The Longest Day" when I get back. Next, it's back to Paris for a few days.
