I was really excited to be able to do this since many tours were not running during mid-February and it is all too far to walk, and there isn't much for public transport up there. But I found a company that will give you the full day tour for 70 Euros, so that was awesome.
We started off by meeting up with the other people and the tour guide in Bayeux, then all piled into the vans to start the tour. He gave us the basic history of the landings and all the stuff, and gave us the agenda for the day: The La Cambe German Cemetery, Sainte Mere Eglise, Utah Beach, Point du Hoc, Omaha Beach, and the famed American Cemetery.
First stop was the German cemetery. It is quite small in size, yet quite large in the number of burials. There are about 21,000 German soldiers buried here, compared to 8000 at the American cemetery at Omaha Beach. Yet the American one is way larger in terms of actual size.
A large mound in the middle where about 300 soldiers are buried
On the left you can see clearly where a square is formed by 4 rows of crosses, with one row of crosses in the middle of the square. Within each one of these squares is about 400 soldiers.
The story goes that there was a man burying the German soldiers, and he went down the line of about 300 dead soldiers and took their dog tags, and then messed up and realized that he did not know which dog tags belong to which soldier. So they buried all the men in this big mound and then wrote all their names on the plaques you can see that go around the mound. As our tour guide said, "I wouldn't want to be they guy who made this mistake"
After the German war cemetery it was over to the small city of Sainte Mere Eglise. If you have seen the movie "Longest Day" then you will be particularly appreciative of this little detour. Depicted in the movie is a scene where an American paratrooper from the 82nd airborne division landed on top of the church and was stuck there hanging. He landed there because next door there was a little house that caught fire on the night of D-Day, and the pilots thought that this was a signal from the pathfinders telling them to drop the troops there, so they dropped the 82nd right in the middle of the city. As a memorial to the soldier who got stuck on the church, they have this
If you zoom in, you can see him hanging by his parachute from the church
The church also has 2 really beautiful stained glass windows dedicated to the landings. Here you can see Mary with the paratroopers
Here you can see the 82nd airborne patch on the left, the phrase they have returned on the bottom, with June 6, 1944 and 1969. This is because this window was for the 25th anniversary of the landings
After this we boarded the vans again and headed a couple hundred feet over to the US Airborne Museum. This was an alright museum. There were a couple of cool things though, such as the reenactment of the famous photo of Eisenhower talking to the 101st airborne paratroopers before they boarded the planes.
Shown here
There was another one of these Bornes
Now to the main event, the beaches. First up was Utah Beach. I was so excited because as long as I can remember I have always wanted to come and see the beaches for myself, and it was finally happening.
Utah Beach
Me on Utah Beach
The first Borne of the Liberty Road
Utah beach was the easiest of the beaches to be captured. It was not as easy for the Germans to defend and did not have the same terrain features, such as the sand dunes and bluffs, that made Omaha such a difficult beach to land on.
After Omaha it was over to Point du Hoc, but on the way we stopped at Brecourt Manor. If you have seen Band of Brothers, then you know this is where Dick Winters led an assault on a German trench system and 4 artillery pieces firing on the beaches, in an assault that is still supposedly taught at West Point today.
Here is the Easy Company memorial to them, just like the one in Bastogne from my other post. The names of the guys who died in Normandy from the company. Besides this, we did not get to see to much of the Manor
Nearby Utah Beach is the memorial to Dick winters, the CO of Easy Company, featured prominently in Band of Brothers
So we drove on to Point du Hoc. Point du Hoc was the target of the 2nd Ranger Battalion on D-Day. The goal was to scale the cliffs of the Point, and destroy the guns that were supposedly there, and hold out until reinforcements arrived. The problem was that the Germans had moved the guns inland, and they were no longer there, but moved inland, but the Rangers eventually found and destroyed them. Point du Hoc was heavily bombed and shelled before the landings, and you can still see all the massive shell holes and the bunkers throughout the Point, all perfectly preserved. It is really neat. It is also worth noting that at this point it was just pouring, and my camera was about to die because I forgot to charge it
Crater and bunker ruins
A big crater
Some craters and ruins
A bunker
This is the entry to the main bunker. All those chips in the doorway are bullet holes. Obviously the fighting was quite fierce
The roof of the bunker is all burnt because when the Rangers assaulted it they used a flamethrower to try to force the Germans out
A view from the main bunker. You can see the cliffs. Funny story, a dog on a leash actually came up to the bunker and saw me through this slit and came over and let me pet him and gave me kisses. He was cute
The outside of the main bunker. That's where the dog crawled in to see me
The actual point
The cliffs. Obviously quite large
After Point du Hoc it was off to Omaha Beach. Unfortunately at this point my camera died so I had to switch to my ipod. I am still pretty pissed at myself for not charging the camera before I left. Wanted to come here my whole life and didn't remember to charge the camera. So stupid.
Anyways Omaha was the most famous and deadliest of the beaches. The Germans had set up formidable defenses here, and the terrain was on their side as well. The allies landed at low tide, which meant that they had several hundred feet of beach to run across before they were even within range of the defenses. Then there were the sand dunes and bluffs to get over. I also watched a documentary that estimated that at any given second at Omaha beach there were 6 bullets in the air being fired towards the landing allied forces. The landings at Omaha is brutally depicted in the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan.
Looking towards where the German defenses were from Omaha Beach
Overlooking Omaha beach is the famed American Cemetery. It is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. No matter where you are standing, you can look out and see a perfect line of crosses.
Like this
This is the 2 crosses of the Niland Brothers, who are supposedly the basis of Saving Private Ryan. One brother belonged to the 82nd and was killed on D-Day, one belonged to the 4th Infantry Division and was killed on June 7, a third was shot down and imprisoned by the Japanese. He was believed to be dead for a while but was actually alive. The 4th brother was in the 101st airborne, and under the impression that the other 3 brothers were killed, the army sent him back to the states. In the book "Band of Brothers", Steven Ambrose talks about this story because the 4th brothers, Fritz, was friends with a couple of guys from Band of Brothers and inaccurately states that the third brother was dead, when in reality he was not. Seems like a big error to make when writing a book.
The view of Omaha Beach from the cemetery
This is a Star of David for a Jewish soldier who died in Normandy
All crosses say name, division, where they are from, rank, date of death, and service number
There are three medal of honor recipients in the cemetery. They get special crosses, as shown here
They gave us 1.5 hours at the cemetery for some reason, which was way too much, so I walked back down to Omaha Beach to do some exploring. I saw some German bunkers in the cliffs, which I desperately wanted to see, but it was pouring and the paths were really muddy, so it made for quite the adventure. I was slipping and sliding everywhere, but I really wanted to see the bunkers. The first one I got to was closed since it was winter, figures. So I see another one a little further and I go to that one, and as I step into it, my feetget submerged half way up my shins. Great. The thing was totally flooded, and I had not realized it because it was so dark in there. So I go to another one a little further, whose entrance was blocked by a mud slide, so no bunkers for me. At this point I am really far from the cemetery, its pouring out, and the tour van was leaving back to Bayeux in 10 minutes, so I ran back to the cemetery, soaking wet, and got back in the van. But it makes for a good story, so whatever.
I am not joking when I say this, but this tour has been the thing I liked the most about my time abroad so far.
When I got back to Munich I bought Band of Brothers the book and read it all in a couple days. It already made so much more sense to me now that I have been to Normandy, Brecourt Manor, and Bastogne. I am a very visual person, so when I was reading the book I had such a better understanding of what they were talking about. Now I just need to rewatch the film!
That's all for this post. Next one is about Bayeux, Cherbourg, and Caen.
Makes me so happy that you embraced and enjoyed this in spite of no camera, the rain, the mud, and having to run to catch your bus! Way to live life! Mom
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