In planning our trip we had originally talked about Paris + Provence but that would not have made the best use of our time so we focused on areas we could get to more easily from Paris. I'm so glad we did because otherwise we probably would have missed out on Normany and that was probably my favorite part of our trip. All the best advice says you need at two days but that meant changing hotels and breaking Paris up into funny chunks (because of when stuff is open) and we just didn't want to be on the road that much. So we found a tour company that offered a one-day tour where they pick you up at a train station Bayeux (closest town D-Day beaches) - it was a full day but well worth it.
Kyle sleeping on our 7am train ride.
We were met by our tourguide Andy at the train station - along with 5 others - and we loaded into the van/bus. In my opinion our tour was the perfect combo of Andy Sutherland (owner/operator of Bayeux Shuttle) giving us an overview of the significance of Normandy/DDay in the greater WWII story + telling specific stories about specific people + answering our unending questions. Andy is a Brit who has been living in the area for over 20 years, married to a French gal - he offered a great perspective. We stopped at all the major American sites and the van had videos in between that told prep/additional stories while we went from place to place.
Our general itinerary was:
(through Carentan) to Sainte Mere Eglise --> Utah Beach --> Angoville
Au Plain --> Point du Hoc --> Omaha Beach --> American Cemetary
We did not go to Gold (Brit), Juno (Canadian) or Sword (Brit) beaches.
I have Kyle here with me now (co-blogger!) and he's going to give us a brief historical overview since I am foggy...Welcome Kyle.
The year was 1944. With the exception of Great Britain, Nazi Germany had conquered all of western Europe. The Allied Forces knew that they had to at some point conduct a ground invasion into Nazi-occupied territory. That day, June 6th, 1944 would later be known as D-Day. The landing spot the Allied Forces chose was in a region of north/eastern France known as Normany - across the English Channel (but not the closest point). This was (and still is) the largest scale military operation in history - US, Canada and Britain were all involved. Hitler had the audacity to believe he could defend an entire western European coast while also fighting the Russians on the eastern front - he left the coast with few troops, some of them older, wounded or even Russian POWs. General Eisenhower made the call to go forward despite sub-optimal sea conditions. The Germans knew something like this was likely coming but they didn't know when or where. The plan was to simultaneously attack 5 different beaches with troops sent from across the English Channel. In conjunction with this effort paratroopers would be sent in hours before the sea invasion to areas more inland in order to weaken German defenses and cut off a counter-attack on troops at the coast. Next the Allies wanted to secure the few roads in the area from Carentan to the deep-water port at the northern most tip of the peninsula - Cherbourg. Ultimatley the goal was to be able to transport necessary troops and large vehicles and weapons to start eastward to take Berlin
Alison adding a few things (paraphrasing or downright copying my Rick Steves outline):
Nazis had been in France since June 1940 (just 9 months since the war started in Poland). The US entered the war after Pearl Harbor in December of 41 (though had been helping the Brits in their U-boat battles for the seas. In 1942, three battles weaken the German and Japanese forces: Stalingrad, El-Alamein (tank-battle in north Africa) and Guadalcanal. From Tunis (jumping off point won at El-Alemein) US and British troops under George Patton and Monty Montgomery land in Italy and start working their way to regain Italy.
D-Day was actually called "Operation Overlord". It included 3 million solders and 6 million tons of material. On the night of June 5th more than 180,000 soldiers board ships/planes not knowing exactly where they are going but each having a note form General Eisenhower that said: The tide has turned. The free men of the world are marching together to victory. Allied forces had been bombing the entire coastline for weeks (?) but it hadn't been as successful as hoped at destroying German bunkers and preparing the coastline for the invasion.
Alright...let's get on the bus and here from Andy (aka stuff I copied from his website describing the tour.)
Sainte Mere
Eglise
(15 miles north of Utah Beach)
This small
town was made famous by the film, "The Longest Day". During the early
hours of the D-day invasion, paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne, 505th
Parachute Infantry Regiment mistakenly dropped directly on to the town square;
much to the amazement of the locals and German soldiers. The town had been heavily bombed and there was a house on fire and a bucket-briggade of citizens and Nazi soldiers out to put it out when the paratroopers landed. Battle ensued.
Effigy of John Steele (paratrooper who got caught on the church; played by John Wayne in the movie) - he was one of the few non-casualties. He pretneded to be dead, handing there for more than 2 hours, was eventually captured by Germans, later escaped and rejoined his unit.
One thing we learned in Normandy was that many of the movies we have all seen that tell some parts of the Normandy/DDay story do a pretty good job but of course there are things left out. There was actually a 2nd paratrooper caught on the other side of the church but he was left out of the movie lived without the fame John Steele later had.
As this was our first stop in Normandy we also started to get a sense of just how much appreciation there must have been (and still is) in this part of the country for the Allied countries. Most of the residents have been here for generations and not only is much of their current economy due to tourism, they live in the houses their grandparents lived in and heard these stories firsthand. Its not a great time to be an American abroad...except in Germany.
We happened to be there on 6/4/15 so the area was already a-buzz with people preparing to commemorate the 71st anniversary on the 6th. These were the first men we saw in uniform.
Andy doing his thing.
The metal fence across from the church still shows the bullet holes from the middle-of-the-night battle.
And on the church.
Beautiful, even without the history.
Most of the windows and stained glass in these old churches was blown out at some point during the war. One of the ones here was replaced with an image of an American paratrooper (angel wings and all).
Even though they landed in the wrong spot and many were killed in the first hours of the invasion, the Americans took the town and played a critical role in the success of the Utah Beach landings by securing roads and bridges behind enemy lines.
On our way to our next stop Andy taught us all about how the terrain in Normandy. Known by
the French as bocage, the "hedgerows" (basically fences made out of hedges used to separate pasture lands) would pose to the
allies troops were underestimated by allied planners. More Americans would die during
battles in the hedgerows than on the landing beaches.
There was a lock that was used to prevent flooding in the sub-sea level elevation of the peninsula. Germans opened it up so that much of the area was flooded - which obviously made things even more difficult.
Utah Beach
The
location where the 4th Infantry of the US VII Corps assaulted on the morning of
June 6th 1944.
Parking lot filled with army vehicles and people in uniform.
And probably the most special part of our visit. On our walk to the beach we met
Charles E. Wilson from Lexington, KY. He was 18 years old when he jumped out of the wooden landing boat on Utah Beach. Thankful that Andy made him feel comfortable so he would share a little of his story with us.
He's taking home a bag of sand from the beach. (That's a model landing vehicle but its made of metal, not wood like the real ones.) He told us that he and all the other boys were scared shitless but knew they had a job to do. It was an honor to meet him.
Utah beach was the first beach Allied troops landed on. Compared to Omaha the troops here met relatively little resistance. The 4th Infantry Division landed 21,000 troops at Utah and only lost 197 men. They cleared the area of Germans in an hour and within a couple of hours had taken cross-roads at Sainte Mere
Eglise (which claims to be the first town liberated).
Tour groups everywhere.
But prep for the 71st anniversary meant awesome WWII-era vehicles and planes!
Hard to imagine this beautiful place as background for a battle.
Monument to General Eisenhower
Naval monument
Richard
Winters Leadership Monument
We hadn't seen HBO's Band of Brothers before we went (but since have - and recommend it) - on the side of the road near Brecort Manor - is an monument to American leadership as represented by Richard Winters of the 101st Airborne (Easy Company).
Angoville
Au Plain (few miles inland of Utah beach)
Two
Airborne medics - Kenneth Moore and Robert Wright - treated Allied & Nazi troops in the Church at Angoville Au
Plain, and refused to leave despite being over-run by German forces who were
frantically trying to counter attack Utah Beach. The medics asked Germans patrols who came to the church to leave their weapons at the door (and they did!) - they did this for 72 hours straight, saving many lives.
Redone windows dedicated to paratroopers and the nedics.
The floor still shows where mortar shells came in through the ceiling.
In an amazing coincidence the 12-century church is (and was already) dedicated to two martyrs who were both doctors.
Pont du
Hoc
In addition to the five beaches, there was another point of strategic importance located between Utah and Omah beaches - Pont du Hoc. At the time it was thought to contain a German gun battery, large-scale guns able to fire something like 10 miles away. The area was located at the top of a high cliff overlooking the sea. The tasking of taking Point du Hoc was given to a group of Army Rangers under the command of James Earl Rudder (whoop!). The two means of scaling the cliffs were to be: 1) large ladders (borrowed from the London Fire Department) carried in by boat, and 2) grappling hooks fired to the top of the cliffs. Neither plan worked, in part due to seas being rougher than anticipated. So, basically, they just bad-assed it up the wall and took it. Bam. Take that Nazis. Gig'em.
Because their ascent was delayed they did not fire the signal for the 2nd wave of Rangers (a larger group) to join them in time so that group landed at Omaha which helped ensure the victory at Omaha beach but left the Rangers at PdH undermanned and had to hold off the Germans for two days by themselves before they were joined by tanks and other infantrymen. In that period they went from 225 to 90 men.
A replica of one of the giant Nazi guns.
German bunkers
This is where those giant machine guns were house/mounted - or at least should have been - but the Germans had pulled them back so the rangers had to come further inland - but they found and destroyed 5 of the 6 that were supposed to be there.
Tour break for watching the giant, loud, low-flying planes.
The cliffs at Pont du Hoc
Ranger memorial - meant to look like the daggers they dug their way up the cliff with.
Bunker from where President Reagan gave a famous speech at the 40th anniversary of DDay. The area was heavily bombed for several months preceding DDay and there are still huge craters but most of the bunkers remain in tact because it would take several direct hits to destroy them. This is what was known as the "Atlantic Wall" which included bunkers and other coastal defense (those giant hex things you see in the DDay scenes of movies that look like jacks - called Czech hedgehogs) which ran all the way from the Spain/France border to the northern coastal tip of Germany up Norway in Scandinavia.
There is a well-known picture of Ronald and Nancy looking out of this bunker.
Inside the bunker, plaques commemorating the Rangers.
Lunch Break
Our little tour-group had lunch at Andy's home - it was several hundred years old when mostly destroyed in the war. He bought it from the family that owned it then and rebuilt it. Pretty cool.
Omaha Beach
Nicknamed "Bloody Omaha," Omaha Beach was a long coastline (actually a very popular resort destination). The boats had to go in at low-tide (because there were thousands of metal poles, Czech hedgehogs and barbed wire along the beach and they would have utterly destroyed the wooden landing boats) which made for a super wide beach to try to cross after jumping out of the boat. The hills above were heavily fortified with machine guns and mortar nets. Again, Allied aerial and naval supporting rocket fire failed to help much. A single German machine gun could fire 1200 rounds a minute, so its a miracle anyone survived. It is estimated that on the first day of the campaign the Allies suffered 10,500 casualties (6,000 American). All in all 34,000 Americans would land on the beach by day's end (in many waves). Contrary to the movie Saving Private Ryan the Germans would often wait until the troops got closer in to shoot them. Many men drowned. And all of the tanks brought in on landing boats to support the invasion sank before they made it to the beach.
Andy giving us the lay of the land.
This wasn't even low-tide - see how wide it is?
American Cemetery
France gave the US this 170 acre piece of land for free. Statue representing the "spirit American youth" at the entrance.
The Garden of the Mission - a wall with the names of 1557 soldiers who were never found. Small metal buttons are next to names of those whose bodies were eventually found/id'd - there aren't many.
Many of the names were from one US sub that was sunk off the coast.
Reliefs (being refreshened) of the Battle of Normany and Battle of Europe.
During the campaign the dead were buried at temporary cemeteries
throughout Normandy. After the war families of soldiers could decide
whether their loved ones would remain in Normandy or be brought home
(60% opted for repatriation). There are a disproportionate number of officers as their families thought they would want to be buried with their men. Teddy Roosevelt Jr (who died from a heart attack a month after DDay) and two of the Niland brothers (famous from Saving Private Ryan) are buried here.
Headstones have names, homestate, date of death (and dog tag numbers on the back) inscribed.
Some are only known as A Comrade in Arms Known but to God.
The day ended with taps and bringing down the flag.
Grateful to the men who fought and died for peace and freedom.
Andy hurried us all back to the train station where we bought to-go dinners and fought sleep on the train-ride home. What a full, emotionally exhausting, beautiful day. Would love to go back and spend more time, especially with our kids someday.
This
small town was made famous by the film, "The Longest Day".
During the early hours of the D-day invasion, paratroopers from the 82nd
Airborne, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment mistakenly dropped directly
on to the town square; much to the amazement of the locals and German
soldiers. Here you will hear the amazing story of John Steele! - See
more at:
http://www.bayeuxshuttle.com/dday-tour-paris.htm#sthash.zxXGVgfK.dpuf
This
small town was made famous by the film, "The Longest Day".
During the early hours of the D-day invasion, paratroopers from the 82nd
Airborne, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment mistakenly dropped directly
on to the town square; much to the amazement of the locals and German
soldiers. Here you will hear the amazing story of John Steele! - See
more at:
http://www.bayeuxshuttle.com/dday-tour-paris.htm#sthash.zxXGVgfK.dpuf
This
small town was made famous by the film, "The Longest Day".
During the early hours of the D-day invasion, paratroopers from the 82nd
Airborne, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment mistakenly dropped directly
on to the town square; much to the amazement of the locals and German
soldiers. Here you will hear the amazing story of John Steele! - See
more at:
http://www.bayeuxshuttle.com/dday-tour-paris.htm#sthash.zxXGVgfK.dpuf
