November 2 - Normandy Beaches

I had arranged with Colin McGarry, an independent tour guide who lives in Caen to take 8 of us on a tour of the Normandy Beaches.  We were docked in Cherbourg.  Colin picked us up in his van promptly at 8:30 am on a day with gray skies promising rain.  We drove through the beautiful french countryside to our first stop - the German Cemetary.  None of us had expected to stop here but it was sobering to know that 22,000 German graves were in this cemetary with many of them marked as unknown soldiers.  Originally American, Canadian and German graves were buried here but when the American Cemetery was established, the graves were moved.

Our next stop was the American Cemetery - an emotional and introspective reaction for most of us, yet lovely in its own way.  149 Stars of David among more than 9000 graves.  Each grave marked with the dog tag number, name, unit, day of death and state where the soldier came from OR as an Unknown Soldier.  We viewed Omaha Beach while Colin showed us maps and pictures of the landing sites and described the obstacles facing the units that landed here.  After viewing the Chapel and sculpture at the entrances, we went on to the monument at Omaha Beach.  There is a large sculpture, done by an artist from NJ, on the Beach as well as the monument above the beach.  We ate lunch at a restaurant near the beach called D Day House.  Once again making our orders known in broken French to a French speaking waitress - with some help from Colin.  Our group planned to pay for Colin's lunch only to find that the restaurant had comped his lunch.

On we went to Pont du Hoc where the rangers landed.  Much evidence of bomb craters and craters made by guns shooting from ships was there along with bunkers and reenforcements built by the Germans.  Millions of Euros are being spent to protect the area to ensure that future generations will have experiences similar to ours.  We spent a lot of time walking the paths, viewing the existing bunkers and seeing where large guns had been placed to prevent the invasion.

Then Colin drove down lots of country roads showing us where The Band of Brothers was filmed (and sharing errors made in both that movie and Saving Private Ryan).  We also visited a farm where one US unit demolished a german machine gun nest and a town held by the Germans where one US soldier cleared out 9 houses single handed.  On the Sainte-Mere Eglise to view the effigy of a paratrooper who had been caught on the church belfry.  We got there while a funeral was ending and, respectfully, watched as the whole town walked slowly behind the casket.  After they were gone, we entered the church to see the stained glass window dedicated to the Paratroopers, then saw bullets still enbedded in the exterior of the church along with holes from a machine gun...certainly brought the actual details of the impact of the war on this tiny town.

We skipped Utah beach since time was drawing close to when the ship would leave the port.
It was a very interesting and moving day for all of us and we were all glad that we had this experience with a knowledgeable and dedicated Frenchman.

Our pictures are meant to share information in addition to seeing where we visited so some long titles on some pictures