A Day to Remember : The D-day beaches

We spent a very memorable Remembrance Day this year.  I'm going to fastforward a little bit and leave Paris for our next post and skip right to the beaches of Normandy; being that it's appropriate for the holiday recently celebrated in Canada.  Chris and I have been renting a car for the last few days and we will have it for the next week.  Despite the chaotic traffic, it has been very nice having our own wheels and the independence of going where we want and when we want.  We've been taking the little roads everywhere to avoid the toll-paying autoroutes.  With this being said, we've had the opportunity to pass by many small hamlet-like towns with houses and farm barns dating back to the 18th century.  Chris is the driver (and has been kicking butt behind the wheel) and I am the navigator (which is not that easy.  Consider taking every road in Canada and condensing them in an area the size of Alberta.  No sleeping passenger for me.)  Driving is smooth, expecially with the constant round-abouts.  Round-abouts are our friends since they allow us to just go round and round when we're trying to figure out what turn off we should take.  To avoid dizziness on the round-abouts, I try to stay on the ball in terms of where we should turn off.  I think I might write a whole post about our travels with Norm (our car).

Driving through small towns.  Hey look, it's century 21 !

So; let's just go straight to the D-day beaches or else I could go on and on and on.  War artifacts are everywhere on the Normandy beaches, it's a very regular sight. Bunkers, trenches, you name it.  Our first stop was at Juno beach, where the Canadian troops landed.  We set flowers on the beach to commemorate the thousands that died.  Being that we are travelling during low-season, the beach was virtually empty.  The mood was dreary.

A regular sight on the beaches of Normandie

The German defense wall overlooking Juno Beach.

A place of courage

Then we visited  Omaha beach, the oh-so-popular Bloody Omaha where over 9000 American troops landed and died trying to free Normandie from the Germans.  The beach was quiet, somber and right away brought on us a sombre mood.  The sheer thought of what these soldiers were going through: fear, panic, sea-sickness, knowing very well their fate to come.  The US suffered one casualty for every 10m they advanced;  We set flowers there also.

Omaha Beach

 

The old harbour where troops arrived on D-day

And then we saw, what was for me, one of the most overwhelming sights I've ever seen : the American War cemetary.  Graves as far as the eye can see.  Every cross the same, except for the engravings and the star of David for those that were Jewish.  Over 9000 graves and 41 sets of brothers.  This makes your life feel insignficant.

And then there was La Pointe du Hoc.  This is an area that the Germans deemed inpenetrable as it was atop huge cliffs.  It was a very strategic point as it stood between Omaha and Utah beach.  Thus, they could easily defend both beaches without the risk of being taken down by the Americans (or so they thought).  Nevertheless, the Americans bit the bullet and sent men climbing up the cliffs to the unattainable German strategic point.  They sent 250 men to climb the cliffs despite how vulnerable they would be climbing cliffs, surrounded by enemies.  Only 90 survived but they did finally capture the point, which was a key role to obtaining Omaha and Utah beach.  To commemorate these soldiers, the point was given to the Americans.  It has been left untouched and here you can really see the true destruction of war.  Bomb craters, barbed wire, concrete gun emplacements, scarred by bullet holes and blackened by flame-throwers.  A true war zone.  

Bomb craters everywhere

A complicated network of underground bunkers

Big guns