Our choice for the port of LeHavre, France was to either go to Paris or to the beaches and memorials of D-Day in Normandy. Being our first time here, we wanted to go to Normandy and pay tribute to those who fought so bravely in WWII.
The weather was as predicted today…..raining in LeHavre when we left on our tour. We left the rain but experienced cool weather and very strong winds coming off the Atlantic Ocean on the beaches of the landings where the Allied liberators started their massive invasion on June 6, 1944. So out came the gloves and headbands in this very typical Normandy weather which we learned is very much like that day in June, 1944.
Our first stop was at Omaha Beach, the site of the most difficult and bloody invasion. As we stood on the beach, we could visualize what happened through our memory of scenes from the movies, “The Longest Day” and “Saving Private Ryan”. We had an excellent guide, through Overlook Tours, who showed us photos taken in 1944 and recounted events at various sites as we stood at the same spot today. He told us how the hedgerows outlining the farms and roads in the area became an unforeseen problem as soldiers could not make their way through the tangled brush and could not tell if there was friend or foe on just the other side of the hedgerow.
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| Bunker on hillside at Omaha Beach |
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| Omaha Beach |
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| Overlooking Omaha Beach |
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| Photo of church in 1944 |
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| Same church now rebuilt |
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| Hedgerow |
Next we visited Pointe du Hoc where American Rangers courageously scaled sheer cliffs on rope ladders while under constant fire to attack the German defense. Terry and our guide went down into one of the many holes around the Pointe to show how deep the explosions of artillery blasted out the area.
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| The cliffs the Rangers had to climb from the beach |
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| Deep hole blasted out by artilliary |
We had lunch overlooking the church in Saint Mere Eglise, where paratroopers dropped from the sky early in the morning ahead of the beach invasions. This church was where a paratrooper landed on the roof of the church, his parachute caught on the steeple. The fall knocked him out and when he awoke, he played dead until he could get himself untangled and off the roof. He was captured but escaped the Germans 2 days later. Our guide said that this paratrooper lived to be 96 years old. There is a parachute on the steeple to help the tourists visualize the event. We remember that this was also a scene in the movie, “The Longest Day”.
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| Church the paratrooper landed on. Parachute on steeple marks the spot |
Our final stop was at a 12th century church at Angoville au Plain, where two American paratrooper medics administered life saving aid to a mix of some 80 American and German soldiers wounded during the first day of the Normandy invasion. This village was overrun by troops of both sides several times during D-Day.
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| Memorial to paratroopers |
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| Church used as a hospital for both American and German soldiers |
This was definitely a day of reflection and gratitude to those who fought and gave their lives for freedom and we will never forget.
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| American cemetary with over 10,000 graves |
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| Memorial pool at American cemetary |
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