D-Day remembered

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Today we went to the D-Day beaches at Normandy. This was where the U.S. finally entered the war in Europe; it was a day that changed the history of Europe, and the world. Some of the most decisive, and deadly, battles in World War 2 were fought here, and this is where the liberation of France, and the rest of Nazi-occupied Europe, began.

First we visited the memorial battlefield at Ponte du Hoc. This was a critical German post due to its situation atop great cliffs with commanding views of the sea (where Allied ships were gathering) and the Omaha and Utah beaches. After Aerial and Naval bombardment, early on the morning of June 6, 1944, 225 U.S. Army Rangers climbed up the cliffs. After two days of fierce fighting and many losses on both sides (only 90 of the 225 Rangers survived), the Germans retreated. What remains at Ponte du Hoc are dozens of broken bunkers, footprints of huge cannons, scars of arial attacks, twisted barbed wire and an overwhelming feeling of loss. I stood near the edge, looking out to the ocean, trying to imagine it filled with almost 7,000 Allied ships waiting to release their troops onto the beaches.

We then visited the U.S. military cemetary, situated on the cliffs overlooking Omaha Beach, a major landing point on D-Day. There are endless rows of graves, over 10,000 of them, yet just a fraction of the American soldiers who died helping liberate Europe from the Nazis (the majority of bodies were repatriated to the U.S.) . Even in rest, they were lined up in perfect formation, as they had been while serving their country. I walked past the grave of a soldier whose name and home state were very similar to my (Erin) grandfather's, and it reminded me of him (who was in the Navy during WW2, but served in the Pacific).
In the guestbook, a visitor from Germany had written "I am sorry!"

It was a sad and moving day. Yet, it was something we appreciated the opportunity to see and experience. We are eternally grateful to those who gave their lives to free millions of others from the Nazi oppression and tyranny.
May the world never again know such tyranny, or another war like that.

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