Despite persistent jet lag, we were up a little earlier than on the previous morning.
Skipping breakfast in Honfleur, we hit the road and picked up some pastries along the
A13 at Aire Giberville. Aire is French for "area," and refers to what
would be called a "rest area" in the US. The rest areas along French Autoroutes are
generally more elaborate than their US counterparts. Every Autoroute Aire
includes at least a gas station and a convenience store. Many also include a
restaurant and a picnic area. They are typically spaced about 15 to 20 kilometers
apart, so a sleepy driver never has very far to go.
At Caen, the largest city in this region of Normandy, we left the Autoroute for
Highway N13, a smaller Nationale highway. Soon we passed the medieval town of
Bayeux, home of the famous 1000-year-old tapestry chronicling the Norman invasion of
England by William the Conqueror in 1066 AD. Months earlier, we had prioritized our
Normandy sightseeing opportunities and the Bayeux was listed fourth, after Omaha
Beach, Mont St Michel, and the old harbor town of Honfleur. Bayeux, along with its
ancient tapestry and great medieval cathedral, would have to wait for a future visit
to this part of France. We did glimpse the domed spire of the Bayeux Cathedral, the
construction of which was initiated during the lifetime of William the Conqueror.
Shortly after Bayeux, we began to spot directional signs for towns guaranteed to
induce palpitations in any World War II buff: Ste-Mère-Eglise, Arromanches,
Pointe du Hoc, St-Lô, to mention a few. At Highway D517, we turned toward the
sea, drove through St-Laurent-sur-Mer, and stopped in a parking area only a few yards
from the water. We were in the very small village of Les Moulins, which
translates to "The Windmills." This was the heart of Omaha Beach— "ground zero"
of the D-Day invasion of Normandy, which some historians have described as the
pivotal event of the 20th century. The liberation of Europe began where we
were standing.
Omaha Beach
On the morning of June 6, 1944, this was not a place to be standing. It was near this
spot that an Allied commander made the famous statement "There are only two kinds of
people on that are going to stay on this beach, the dead and those that are about to
die. Now let's get the hell out of here." This stretch of beach has been immortalized
in movies such as the Longest Day and the violent opening scenes of Saving
Private Ryan. The American troops that disembarked at Omaha Beach were
immediately pinned between the sea and German artillery. Many never even set foot on
French soil before becoming a casualty of war. Of those that made it to the beach,
a significant fraction died from enemy fire before reaching the shelter at the
base of the bluffs. Less than one-third of the initial assault wave on this section
of the beach survived the journey from their landing craft to the shelter of the
bluffs. Those that made it had to brave a gauntlet of artillery shells, mortars,
machine guns, small arms fire, land mines, and barbed wire, in addition to the sight
of dead and dying comrades strewn about the beach. Those that endured, however,
transformed a struggle for survival into a victory over totalitarianism.
A major Allied objective was the road on which we had just descended. Sixty years
ago, the highway now known as D517 was a previously insignificant unpaved road that
led from the beach to the village of St-Laurent-sur-Mer. The German commanders knew
that the sole decisive factor in an Allied invasion would be the ability of the
invading troops to progress beyond the beaches. If the Americans, British and
Canadians gained access to the interior, Germany would not only lose France, but
ultimately lose the war. The road on which we arrived was one of several "exits,"
military jargon for breaks in the steep 100 ft-cliffs, along Omaha Beach that would
allow the invasion to spread beyond the beaches. The German defensive line was
exceptionally vulnerable at Omaha Beach and the defenders fought ferociously to
protect the five exits that provided access into the interior. Whereas other
portions of the Normandy coast were manned by inexperienced troops, Omaha Beach was
defended by battle-hardened veterans from the Russian front. The access that Omaha
Beach offered to the interior accounted for the fact that it was the bloodiest
battle of a very bloody day.
Where we stood, the most obvious reminder of those troubled times is the
Liberation Monument, a dark massive stone structure resembling the keel of a
ship. The monument is dedicated to the US forces that landed on this beach during the
pre-dawn hours of June 6, 1944. To those familiar with the history of the Normandy
invasion, the names of the towns overlooking Omaha Beach are also powerful reminders
of war. The "sur-Mers," which means "upon the sea"— St-Laurent-sur-Mer,
Colleville-sur-Mer, and Vierville-sur-Mer— were all liberated by Allied forces
before nightfall on June 6, 1944.
Prior to D-Day, these obscure villages perched above the English Channel embodied
the agricultural heritage of Normandy. Following the Second World War, these
towns and their inhabitants quickly resumed their ancient traditions of dairy
farming, horse breeding, and cider making. Stately centuries-old stone farmhouses
with adjacent half-timbered barns are a common sight throughout the region. Cheese
connoisseurs will be familiar with Camembert and Pont l'Évêque
cheeses produced by the dairy farms of Normandy. The ubiquitous apple orchards are
the source of Calvados apple cider. The agricultural heritage of Normandy
was responsible for one of the most frustrating obstacles to Allied advancement—
the notorious hedgerows. These are relatively straight embankments of earth and
vegetation ranging from six to ten feet tall, usually paired with an adjacent dirt
road, that are used to demarcate farm boundaries. Most are centuries old
and the combination of solid earth, matted roots, and thick tangled brush render
them impenetrable to tanks and even bulldozers. In the hedgerow fighting that
followed the Allied landings, the American Army lost about 1000 men per day, about
half the number lost on D-Day. In the long term, the hedgerow battles were the
deadliest of the Normandy invasion.
D-Day was not the first invasion of these beaches. The Vikings repeatedly pillaged
the coastal areas of Normandy until they were ceded to them under a peace treaty.
The Vikings, or Norsemen that settled here adopted the French language and
customs, and eventually became known as Normans, after which the region was
named. It was from these beaches that William the Conqueror, a Norman duke, initiated
a successful invasion of England. All British monarchs for the past one thousand
years have been his descendants. Disputes between his descendants over royal
successions have been responsible for numerous wars between France and England, and
Normandy has changed hands between the two countries on several occasions. Four
centuries after the death of William, France finally became a stable possession of
France. One remnant of English influence is the large number of Protestant enclaves
that exist within Normandy.
American Military Cemetery
The most significant site at Omaha Beach is the American Military Cemetery
overlooking the sea at Colleville-sur-Mer. At just over 172 acres, the cemetery
includes 9387 precisely aligned graves, each marked with a white marble cross or
Star of David. The cemetery, which includes a large memorial, a chapel, and a
reflecting pond bordered by two simple American flags, was designed to have a
powerful emotional impact on visitors. The location has a commanding view of the
beach where many of the buried soldiers died. The bluff on which the cemetery
is located may have been the objective, perhaps even the last sight, for some.
The fact that this is an American cemetery has significance beyond the heroic
deaths of fellow citizens. These were not Europeans. These were Americans that
sacrificed their lives for the liberation of a country not their own. It is even
more humbling to realize that this is only one of several American military
cemeteries scattered throughout Europe, and while this graveyard above Omaha Beach
is the most famous, it is not the largest.
Although the cemetery features several diorama-type exhibits depicting battlefield
events and developments, this is not an invasion museum. The American Military
Cemetery at Colleville is a memorial to a greater theme. Many of the dual bilingual
inscriptions, invariably in French and English, stress the relationship between
sacrifice and freedom. Heroism is another theme. The centerpiece of the memorial is a
large bronze sculpture named The Spirit of American Youth Rising from the
Waves. On this day, the somber mood was deepened by an intermittent light rain.
Everytime I passed an elderly visitor, I wondered if they were a tourist like me, or
there to visit a long-lost loved one or fallen friend.
Interesting facts learned during our visit—
- Not all of the American soldiers buried in the Normandy cemetery were killed at
Omaha Beach, or even in Normandy. A few were killed during the First World War.
- The Colleville burials are post-war consolidations of numerous smaller battlefield
graveyards, and even isolated individual graves.
- A disproportionate number of officers are buried at Colleville. Following
the war, the family of each American combat fatality was given the choice of
returning the remains of their loved one for a hometown burial, or allowing their
bodies to remain buried in France alongside their fellow soldiers. The families
of officers were more likely to have these leaders buried with the men that they
commanded.
- There are four women buried at Colleville, 307 unknown remains, and 33 pairs of
brothers buried side-by-side.
- Three Medal of Honor recipients are buried here, including Brigadier General
Theodore Roosevelt Jr., son of President Theodore Roosevelt and nephew of
President Franklin Roosevelt.
- The cemetery includes a Garden of the Missing commemorating 1557 American
soldiers whose bodies were never recovered.
- More than half of the American troops originally buried in this region of France
were exhumed and reinterred in the United States.
- Out of respect for visiting Americans, the cemetery remains open on French
holidays.
German Bunkers
From the cemetery we walked toward the sea and found a cluster of German
fortifications known as "WN62." The designation "WN" is an acronym for
Widerstandsnester, which means "resistance nest" in German. A dozen
Widerstandsnesters were constructed in this area to direct fire onto
the Omaha Beach gully exits. The particular nest that we were visiting was
primarily intended to protect the Colleville Draw, a large gully
immediately east of Les Moulins, the "exit" that we visited earlier.
Although Allied intelligence had erroneously concluded that the defenses at
Omaha Beach were poorly maintained and manned by inexperienced troops with
little morale, in reality, each "nest" in this vicinity was defended by
twenty combat veterans armed with artillery, mortars, and machine guns.
The "Desert Fox," Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, one of the most famous figures of the
Second World War, was responsible for the defense of the "Atlantic Wall." There is
almost no doubt that he would have personally made repeated inspections of this
critical position. The thick concrete walls, extensively riddled with rebar and
still standing sixty years later, are a testimony to the care that was taken in
the construction of this site. The individual structures that we explored were
connected by a series of trenches that rarely followed a straight line for more
than a few yards. Rommel likely stood amidst these very fortifications and looked
out to sea and wondered about the future, just as I stood there wondering about
the past. By this point, along with most competent and sane German commanders, Rommel
was extremely pessimistic about the outcome of the war. He was not in Normandy on the
day of the invasion.
While I looked out into the English Channel, I thought about the reaction of the
German defenders when suddenly confronted with the largest invasion armada in
history. I recalled reading an eyewitness account of a German soldier stationed at
one of the Omaha Beach nests (I later confirmed that it was WN62, the very site we
visited). He described how he first doubted his senses, perhaps the "shadows" on the
horizon were merely figments of a highly-stressed and anxious mind. When he could no
longer deny that they were naval vessels, he held out a brief hope that they were
German patrol craft. Eventually, however, the the sheer number of ships, combined
with the increasingly unmistakable sound of bomber squadrons in the distance, left no
doubt as to the nature of the situation. He felt as if he was watching death slowly
approaching. Soon he was in the middle of one of the deadliest battles of the
western front. He also mentioned that the Allied armada was so massive that it
generated an enormous wake that reached the shore before any of the landing craft.
The Germans fought ferociously. Those that attempted to "prematurely" surrender were
shot in the back by their commanding officers. In the end, however, the outcome was
virtually inevitable. The German defense became increasingly hopeless and
ineffective. One by one, the resistance nests fell silent, victims of overwhelming
force from virtually every quarter. From the sea, highly effective naval bombardment.
From the beach, assaults by Allied troops that survived the trek across the beach
soon began to appear immediately beneath the defensive fortifications. From the
interior, paratroopers that landed during the previous night attacked from the rear.
And from the air, Allied aircraft relentlessly pounded the nests with bombs that were
targeted with increasing accuracy and effectiveness.
The silence has persisted. Sixty years later, the only sounds at WN62 are of
ocean waves and seagulls.
Omaha Beach Memorial Museum
Normandy has numerous museums dedicated to the Second World War and the Allied
invasion, including the enormous Peace Museum at Caen. We visited a much
smaller, very unpretentious, museum at the top of the exit road from Les
Moulins. The Musée Mémorial D'Omaha Beach is located in
St-Laurent-sur-Mer near the edge of the bluffs, about 200 yards from the beach.
The museum, also known as the Musée Omaha 6 Juin 1944, is an absorbing
collection of artifacts depicting both the German occupation and the Allied
invasion. Mannequins with authentic uniforms and equipment are collectively
positioned to recreate life-sized scenes of the events that so profoundly affected
this area. An extensive variety of artifacts are displayed, including collections of
helmets, medals and division shoulder patches. Contemporary newspaper articles are
displayed alongside weapons. Even vehicles such as motorcycles and jeeps are on
display. I found the exhibits of personal items, such as chewing gum and
toothbrushes, to be the most thought provoking. They reminded me of rummaging through
the little items in my father's WWII "ammo box."
Return to Honfleur
We arrived back in Honfleur just before dark. The weather on our last night in
Normandy was chilly and slightly rainy. We decided to do laundry so we wouldn't have
to deal with it in the Loire Valley. We retraced the path to a laundromat along the
Rue de la République that we noticed the night we arrived in Honfleur.
Nearby was a grocery store, at which I bought a box of détergent along
with some other "supplies." As we began walking back to our hotel with our freshly
laundered clothes, it began to rain heavily. Minutes after arriving back in our room,
it began to pour. The drenching rain lasted about twenty minutes, and then stopped
entirely. We headed out in search of dinner.
We chose a seafood and Italian restaurant called Le Lutetia and had the
quatre fromage (four-cheese) pizza for 25€. Afterwards, we had a chilly
fifteen minute walk to our hotel. The next day we would leave Normandy and drive to
the Loire Valley.
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