Untitled Document

The Normandy Area of France

One of the areas that was high on my list of places to visit while in Europe was Normandy, an area in northwest France. My desire was to visit the site of the Normandy invasion that occurred on 6 June 1944. With some exploration and inquiry, I decided to travel to Caen, France, and from there, locate a way to tour the invasion sites. I knew nothing about Caen (pronounced like "caw" but with a rather nasal "w") before I arrived there, but after having been in that city for parts of four days, I was very happy that Caen was the place I chose. While in Caen, I learned of a tour guide agency that took small groups to the invasion sites. That tour and what I saw is found below.

Secondly, I learned that Caen was the home of William the Conqueror, a Norman duke who invaded England in 1066 and defeated the Anglo-Saxons and became the King of England. Additionally, I may have had a relative or relatives that participated in the Norman Invasion of England and learning about William the Conqueror and Normandy was exciting. What I learned about Caen, the Normans, and William the Conqueror is shown elsewhere.

My actual travel experience to Caen was also interesting and stressful. In Liege, Belgium, I boarded what is known here as a Thalys train. These trains are built to travel very fast, and the one I was on did! I have carried with me a hand-held Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver. It allows me to precisely locate places and it permits me to determine the speed of vehicles in which I am traveling. Between Liege and Brussels, the Thalys train reached 189 mph - we were really moving. Between Brussels and Paris we moved at 185 mph for the entire two-hour journey. The stress came when I had to transfer from the Paris North train station to the Paris St. Lazare station. I hadn't done it before and was worried about time. With help of kind Parisians, I made it through the metro stations and made all connections.

Well, let's take a took at sites associated with the Normandy Invasion that began on the north coast of Normandy on 6 June 1944.

	Located in Caen is a relatively new Memorial Museum devoted to World Ward II and the Allied Invasion of Normandy which drove out the German occupiers. I entered the museum at 9:00 a.m. and spent four hours there.
	The entrance to the museum is flanked on the right by flags of the Allied Forces and others and on the left (through the flags in this photo) a collection of stones encased in glass which contain phrases from those countries. The phrases relate to wishes for peace and the horrors of war.
	This is the large central hall of the Memorial Museum. The display is contained primarily below this level. At 1:00 p.m., where the people are standing in the foreground, I met Susan and John from New York and our guide, Claire. Claire is of Norman descent (she said look at my eyes - they were blue) and was a wonderful guide who had an enormous knowledge of the Normandy Invasion and the region.
	This is Claire, our gracious French guide and driver of the minivan used for our tour. Our first stop was on the west end of Gold Beach where we learned about the British landing and their advance on German positions.
	The concrete wall is an antitank barrier built by the Germans at Gold Beach. At low tide, several hundred yards off shore, at 5:30 a.m., the British landed and began to advance on German positions. Casualties were high because the British troops had little cover as they advanced toward this village. The village is Arromanches.
	There were five sites along the Normandy coast where the British, Canadians, and American forces landed. The Gold Beach was in the middle. To the east were Juno and Sword Beaches and to the west were Omaha and Utah Beaches. This photo is looking east along Gold Beach - the tide is in.
	All of the Normandy beaches are adjacent to a tall bluff and in some places, steep cliffs. The Germans held this high ground with tanks, big and small guns, bunkers, pill boxes, and thousands of troops. This is an example of how it may have appeared as the British forces started up the slopes of the bluff.
	There was no natural harbor on Gold Beach at the village of Arromanches, so the British forces had to construct a temporary artificial harbor to enable them to unload military hardware. The huge concrete blocks seen here in the English Channel are components of of that huge, artifical harbor.
	You can still see in the distance, remnants of the material used to build the artificial harbor. The item in the foreground was part of a structure used to drive military vehicles on as the headed toward the beach.
	This view gives you an idea of the bluffs and cliffs the British forces had to breech as they encountered German troops. On the headland (to the west) in the distance are four pill boxes that contain(ed) German guns. Let's go take a look at them.
	In the background you can see the English Channel, across which the invasion occurred. To the right (out of view) is Gold Beach and to the left (out of view) is Omaha Beach. The big guns located here could fire 13-15 miles at both beaches and into the Channel. One of the gun pill boxes is at left.
	Here are two of the pill boxes which protected the guns. All four of these gun sites were neutralized by Allied Forces.
	These were 150 mm guns. The concrete enclosure was constructed so that plants and grass could be planted in small indentations to help camouflage the pill boxes. These pill boxes had just been finished when the invasion began.
	Behind the gun were places to throw empty shells, ammunition storage rooms, and rooms for the gunners. The gunners wore gas masks so they could breath immediately after the gun was fired, and many of them became deaf because of the tremendous noise that occurred when the gun was fired. Now let's go on to Omaha Beach.
	This is the bluff looking down on Omaha Beach. Omaha Beach was one of two attacked by American forces. It was heavily fortified by German troops which led to thousands of American casualties.
	This view gives you a sense of the height of the bluff and the ease with which the Germans could fire at the Americans as they landed on the beach and tried to move up the bluff.
	This is Omaha Beach looking toward the east. The invasion occurred during low tide as shown here. You can see how difficult it would have been to take the beach under fire from German forces on the bluff.
	Another view of Omaha Beach looking toward the west.
	The American forces at Omaha Beach were divided into groups designated as Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Dog, etc., and then a color. Divisions Dog White and Dog Red attacked the beach here.
	This is one of the landing craft that brought soldiers ashore at the beaches. It held about 30 soldiers who were carrying rifles and other items weighing about 70 pounds.
	Thousands of American soldiers died at Omaha Beach. Initially they were buried here, but later were moved to a large cemetery on top of the bluff. The cemetery is now U.S. territory and cared for by the U.S. Let's go up there and walk through it.
	This walkway goes toward the beach. Part way up on the right is a memorial to the unknown dead and the cemetery is to the left. There are over 9,300 Americans buried in this cemetery - about 31 percent of those who died in the Normandy invasion. The rest of the dead were taken home for burial - each family made the decision regarding the burial site.
	This is the memorial to the unknown dead. The two trees are olive trees, symbols of peace. Names of the dead are on the low structure behind the tall columns. The statue represents the young soldiers rising from the beach reaching for victory to free the Normandy French from German occupation.
	Looking west is the reflecting pool and a chapel in the center of the cemetery. You can see the markers on each side of the path toward the chapel. The trees on each side of the reflecting pool are trimmed in the shape of parachutes in memory of the airborne troops who landed in the darkness before the actual invasion began.
	Here are some of the grave markers. On the west side of each marker you can read the name of the person buried, the death date, and the home state. On the east side is the dog tag number. Grave markers are crosses and stars of David.
	Here is another view of the graves that contain the bodies of persons who gave their lives to free France from German occupation.
	This grave is that of one of President Roosevelt's brothers. He was a brigadier general and died of a heart attack during the battle. He received a medal of honor prior to this, thus his name and other information appear in gold.
	This marker didn't have a name on it. It says "A Comrade in Arms."
	On occasion, a family of one of the soldiers come to the cemetery and request a brief ceremony. The ceremony includes the laying of flowers and the playing of taps. Also, wet sand is spread across the name so that it can be seen in a photograph. When the sand dries, it falls off the marker returning it to its original state.
	In the center of the cemetery is the chapel. Inside are benches, flags, a tomblike memorial, and a mosaic ceiling.
	This is the tomblike memorial in the chapel. You can see part of a bench at the right and the flags.
	The chapel ceiling was very interesting. This view shows Lady Liberty of the U.S. sheltering a soldier with her left hand and sending a supply plane to France. Her right hand reaches toward an angel and a dove coming from France. The stars represent the 13 original colonies of the U.S. whom were helped by the French against the British.
	This portion of the ceiling shows a French woman comforting a soldier. You can see the U.S. supply plane coming toward her and the soldier and you can see the angel leaving her. I thought this was a wonderful representation of the relationship that existed between the U.S. and France at the end of World War II.
	Between Omaha Beach and Utah Beach to the west is Pointe du Hoc, a point that was heavily fortified by the Germans. With its big guns, it could hit Omaha and Utah beaches. Allied forces bombed it and destroyed its usefulness. These next few photos show the bunkers, command center, and craters of the bombardment.
	This was the German command post on Pointe du Hoct. In the background you can see the English Channel. The Germans in this bunker only came out when flame throwers were blown into the ventilation holes. The memorial on the bunker represents the army rangers (a dagger) who led the battle here by scaling the cliffs nearby.
	Far beyond this cliff is Utah Beach. You can just make it out in the far distance. A female nurse was among the Utah Beach invasion force. Many years later, she visited the site and was able to share some stories with Claire, our guide.
	All of the indentations are bomb craters created by Allied bombing of Pointe du Hoc.
	More bomb craters.
	More bomb craters.
	This whole area was honeycombed with tunnels. As the area was bombed, the tunnels were exposed.
	This structure was used to store munitions. It exploded from within and blew HUGE pieces of reinforced concrete several yards away and left this crater.
	In addition to the American cemetery in the Allied invasion area, there are German and British cemeteries. This is the German cemetery and is today maintained by Germany. The crosses are not graves. The graves are marked with flat markers difficult to see in this photo. Also, each grave here has two soldiers and the mound in the background has thirty. The French were not willing to give the Germans more land for a larger cemetery.
	This photo shows the flat grave markers where German soldiers are buried. The Geneva Convention required enemy soldiers to bury those they killed. The Germans didn't do that in Normandy, and it was the Americans who buried most of the soldiers buried in the German cemetery.
	This is the entrance to the British cemetery. It is noted for the cross in the background, the two buildings on either side, a memorial tomb between the two buildings, and small flower "gardens" by each grave marker.
	The British cemetery. There you have it. A tour of the Normandy Invasion area of France.

	This is the outside of the Paris Noord train station. It was huge inside with several levels and entrances and exits to the metro. I arrived here from Liege on my way to Normandy and from St. Lazare train station in western Paris on my way back to Maastricht.
	I mentioned the Thalys trains. This is one of them in the Paris Noord train station.
	This is the Thalys train I rode in from Paris to Liege. It was continuing on to Cologne, Germany. My travel time between Paris and Liege was about two hours. This would normally take four hours or more by car or bus.