Normandy Invasion Beaches - continued

I ended the last post with a few photos of the American Cemetery above Omaha beach.  Our first visit at the cemetery was part of an all day D-Day history tour so we didn't have a long stay.  We planned to revisit on our own in a day or two depending on the weather (see below), but for now I'll give our first impressions.  It's quite big, officially 172 acres, beautifully landscaped and manicured. On this day it was getting special attention as the official ceremonies will be in about a week with many dignitaries, including President Obama.  Unfortunately this translated into some of the sections being roped off, but others were open and we just strolled into those.  It is very reminiscent of Arlington. The white crosses and Stars of David are aligned in military precision and their mute message was loud and clear - sacrifice.  It is just stunning to see this, especially coming up from the beach where many of these soldiers gave their all (note - the cemetery contains about 9,400 graves but these are for all the Normandy battles, not just the invasion phase). The location of the cemetery overlooking Omaha reinforces the connection between the two. As you walk among the markers you can easily glance down to Omaha beach and the channel beyond. There are several buildings or monuments as part of the complex and they too focus on the bravery and sacrifice embodied here.  We wanted to just stroll around and try to let it all sink in.  The markers had the names, ranks, date of death and home state while at the bottom on the reverse side was their service number - simple and powerful.  We had brought a few packets of small American flags that we planned to place at markers that called out to us.  We looked for those from our home states, but one that really caught my attention was inscribed only as:

Here Rests in Honored Glory
A Comrade in Arms
Known but to God

For me this symbolized all that was here.

So the tour continued from the cemetery to Point du Hoc where US Army Rangers scaled shear cliffs to silence guns that threatened both Omaha and Utah. This was one site where the grounds were left as they were at the end of the battle.  Before the Rangers attacked, the site was heavily bombed and the grounds are still like a moonscape of craters.  Some were as deep as 10 or 20 feet - hard to imagine being anywhere near this and surviving.  Huge chunks of concrete were strewn about, but apparently the Germans were holed up deep underground in bunkers with immense thicknesses of reinforced concrete.  So the Rangers were called on to finish the job. It is just an incredible story that about 200 men were able to scale the cliffs under fire, capture the site and hold out there for several days.  Less than half survived.  Looking down to the waves below the cliffs was a stunning view - impossible to imagine how they did this.

Next stop Saint Mere Eglise. This town was a key objective for the US paratroops dropped here in D-Day's early morning, moonlit darkness.  It is mainly known by the story of a paratrooper whose parachute got caught on the town church bell tower causing him to be trapped hanging on the side of the church.  The church today is much like it was in those days - a typical stone church with bell tower.  The town however is larger and modernized a bit - tourist parking lots and museums.  The church features a replica of the paratrooper still hanging from the bell tower by his parachute.

Church at St. Mere Eglise

Utah beach seemed to have less fanfare than Omaha - fewer memorials and no dramatic bluffs overlooking the beach. The beach has a good sized sand dune that provided cover and the belts of obstacles here were apparently fewer. Nevertheless, it still recalls the brave men who rushed ashore those many years ago.  The fighting on the beach was less intense here, but lives were still lost and the battle really developed inland. The inland landscape was dominated then by flooded lowlands which are today lush low-lying pastures.  The paratroopers did their job well and Utah beach was largely sealed off. The infantry and paratroops quickly joined up and shifted the battle to deepening the beachhead.

Utah Beach

The tour then took us to several inland sites where significant events occurred.  Two of these were stories of small groups of soldiers doing amazing things.  The first of these was the capture and defense of a small bridge over the river Merderet inland of Utah beach.  At this place a few brave paratroops held off a significant German attack, which included tanks.  It was amazing to view it today as a gentle pastoral landscape, a small bridge and gentle flowing stream.  This was the basis of the final battle scene in "Saving Private Ryan" except it was in reality well out in the countryside, not in a small town as depicted in the movie.  There were some farm buildings around, but no town or village.  Still, apparently the battle raged fiercely as depicted in the movie.

The last stop on the tour was even more moving.  It was at a small village named Angoville - Au - Plain, again inland of Utah Beach. Here, two paratroop medics, really just youngsters, collected wounded - both American and German - into the village church so they could be treated and sheltered.  They kept at it while the battle raged about them and while the village ownership changed hands several times.  The Germans respected this and were grateful to bring in their wounded when they controlled the village.  Today, the church has several stained glass windows celebrating the paratroopers, and displays several pews still with bloodstains.  Outside, several monuments recognize these two brave men.

Church at Angoville-Au-Plain

The next day - this would be Thursday - Cath and I wanted to revisit some of the invasion sites on our own so we could spend more time and to explore on our own.  Primarily this was the American Cemetery at Omaha, but there were a few other places.  The weather turned our to be very cooperative - blue skies with a few clouds.  So at the cemetery we again strolled the grounds, but at a more leisurely pace. One grave site I wanted to visit was that of General Teddy Roosevelt, Jr who was the assistant division commander at Utah and died a few days after the invasion.  He received the Congressional Medal of Honor for personally leading the 1st landing waves at Utah and personally directing the initial battle.  Several things were significant about his burial site.  First, Congressional Medal of Honor recipients have the lettering of their names, rank, etc. in gold and with a gold star above their names.  The other thing of significance is that his brother, Quentin Roosevelt, who was killed in WW I was re-interred to a grave next to his brother.  A very touching thing to see.

Graves of Quentin (left) and Teddy Roosevelt, Jr (right)

One of the most inspiring things to see was the large numbers of school children at both the cemetery and on the beach.  At the cemetery they were being led on tours and also taking part in ceremonies.  Hopefully the lessons of the past will not be forgotten.

We also wanted to back down onto Omaha beach and I wanted to do in in a particular way.  That was to follow the path that was taken by one of the first soldiers who managed to get off the beach and up to the top of the bluff.  This was a Captain Joe Dawson and his story is very famous in this battle.  So there is now actually a small paved path of his route from the beach to the cemetery and this is the route we took.  I have read his oral history and this path is amazingly accurate to his description,  This really added to the personal stories aspect of our visits. Afterward we followed his story a bit further by going to a small village, Colleville-sur-mer, about a kilometer from the cemetery where Captain Dawson let his troops to capture a part of this village by the close of the invasion day.  Quite an interesting story and it was very touching to literally follow the footsteps of this story. Dawson never claimed any personal honor in his actions and he attributed everything to his "magnificent" soldiers.  He was nevertheless awarded the Distinguished Service Cross that was presented to him personally by Eisenhower. (If anyone is interested, I have a copy of Dawson's oral history of his actions on D-Day, plus a letter that he had written to his parents afterward.  Both are amazing to read)

Church at Colleville -sur-mer

Church at Colleville-sur=mer shortly after D-Day

Finally, I had one more spot I really wanted to visit. This was a little town back near Utah Beach where my father had been just after he entered France at Cherbourg. This was in September of '44, well after the invasion. His unit was first to land at Cherbourg direct from the US.  They had to delay in Normandy (Army = hurry up and wait!) until their supplies caught up with them.  So there was no fighting there, just further training.  Anyway, I wanted to visit the area.  The town is called St. Germain de Tournebut and it is a tiny crossroads village of 300 people, stone houses and a stone village church.  It's mostly surrounded by apple orchards and the mass of soldiers were camped out in those orchards.  So I just wanted the pleasure of touching base with this event.  So we drove up there, found the village and walked about the church.  We couldn't find a cafe, but at least we did visit the area and enjoyed the Norman countryside.

Church at St. Germain de Tournebut

So that was our free day in the invasion area.  The next post (and last) is our last day in Bayeux (the Bayeux Tapestry and the cathedral), plus our return to Paris for travel home.