Normandy

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Normandy - site of Operation Overlord - June 6, 1944; The Longest Day, The Day of Days

Up early and on the bus again this time for transit from Paris to the Normandy coast along the English Channel and to visit the landing beaches of D-Day.

In Normandy, above Omaha Beach, is the site of thousands of US graves. The site of the US Memorial has been returned to the US and is US ground, not French ground. The Memorial is a powerful reminder of that era. The site is the second burial ground for many of those who died that day. The first burial ground was established above the water line just inland with dog tags left as identification. Later, more formal burial and memorial activities were performed.

Pictures or video cannot relay how impactful this site is so it would be useless to even try. So many things happened that day and the weeks and months that followed it cannot be captured in this blog entry. 225 Rangers attacked the concrete bunkered German postions high above Omaha beach by climbing the 90 foot cliffs with specially designed equipment. It was a bold effort that extracted a step toll. Of the 225 specially trained Rangers, only about 75 remained when the smoke cleared. Contributing to this effort is a navigation error that required the Rangers to remain in their boats heading parallel to the beach under German fire to get to the proper point of attack, arriving 40 minutes late and without the element of surprise. This is the type of story that was played out over and over as Allied forces streamed into Europe to defeat Hitler.

It was a long day for us 64 years and one month later, nearly 14 hours with the commute to the coast, but well worth it. We have now visited Pearl Harbor and Normandy and are prepared to do our part to ensure the lessons from those two critical days are never forgotten.

Tomorrow we lighten it up a bit and tour the city of Paris.

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