Normandy

June 12, 2006 –

This past weekend Tim Shaw and I drove out to Normandy to tour the D-Day beaches and memorials. We also through in a bonus trip to Mont St. Michele, which is a beautiful abbey on top of what was once an island of sorts. It is truly amazing!



Saturday, before going to Mont St. Michele we stopped at the Caen Memorial, which sets up the situation that allowed Hitler to rise to power along with Mussolini in Italy, and the general situation in Europe following WWI . The most memorable part of the museum for me were two video’s. The first started with a split screen image of both the allied forces and the German defenses relaxing, rolling dice, training, and dealing with “normal life” at their various posts. Then the scenes begin to be more and more tense as the allied forces start towards the beaches of Normandy and the troops are readying themselves to go ashore. This continues to build as the allied forces start to come to shore, the German forces sound the alarms, and eventually the two screens melt into one that is similar to the scenes we have all seen in movies such as Saving Private Ryan, Longest Day, and Band of Brothers. The movie then becomes a series of still before and after shots of villages that are really powerful. Where there once stood stores, homes, and churches, nothing is left but rock walls and rubble.





That afternoon evening I went for a bike ride through some of the small villages and country roads not more than 15 miles from the coast line that made up the D-Day landing. After having seen the video, the images were still fresh in my mind and as I passed through several small villages, the scars of the war became very real and visible in the walls of homes that had clearly suffered great damage and had been rebuilt using what remained of the original rock walls.

The next day we took a Battle Bus tour which was very thorough. We covered the Utah Beach, Omaha Beach, Point De Hock, and the American Cemetery that overlooks the beach. Our guide was excellent. He was and Englishman who had a deep passion for the men who fought in the war and the individual stories, but just the big pictures. At each stop he shared stories of American soldiers, the events that lead up to the landing, including plans, weather, good fortune, etc. that either made it harder or easier for the soldiers landing on the beaches and dropping from the sky’s. He had an obvious affinity for the paratroopers and since he lived in the area he has actually befriended several veterans that were there on the days that he was describing to us. I found the entire day to be way more emotional than I would ever have imagined. I actually felt a bit chocked up at several points and was blown away by the gravity of the difficulties these men had to face and overcome to free France and eventually Europe from the grip of the Nazi’s. I even was able to take a quick dip into the Ocean at Utah beach, which felt oddly cleansing and refreshing. This is a tour that I would recommend to anyone. It will blow you away! The day ended with a visit to the American Cemetery, which receives 3 million visitors a year, second only to Arlington. Of those 3 million I was surprised to find out that 2 million visitors are from France, 800,000 from everywhere else in the world and 200,000 from the US. It really seemed to show the appreciation that the French have for what this generation of individuals did for their country. I was extremely humbled.