29/6/2010-D-Day tour

Point Du Hoc. The craters you see are from the bombs dropped by the Air Force and Navy's off shore Destroyers.

St. Mary E'Glise.

A look from right above Omaha beach at Point Du Hoc. Can you imagine climbing that?

Stained glass window at the church in St. Mary E'Glise. Notice the American paratroopers surrounding the Virgin Mary instead of the typical angels.

German Cemetary. This mound is made up of unknown soldiers. The statues on top are of a mother and father weeping.

A jeep like what my Granddad drove.

Today we took a coach (really a van) tour to see D-Day sights. We saw Utah and Omaha Beaches, Pont Du Hoc, The American and a German cemetery, Airborne Museum, and St. Mary E’Glise. I wasn’t super familiar with all of these sights by name, so for the purpose of this blog I will assume you won’t be either. The beaches were well; I’m not sure what adjective to use here. Amazing makes it sound as if they were wonderful, and while they were, that doesn’t quite give the right connotation, does it. It was hard looking out at the pristine beautiful beaches to imagine such a ghastly and horrific battle being fought there just 66 years ago. The Utah beach didn’t have such quite steep terrain for the American soldiers to climb, but Omaha did have quite a big cliff to scale. I could still imagine it though. It was nothing compared to Point Du Hoc where the Army Rangers went in. If you haven’t watched The Longest Day, I suggest you do so you can understand what I mean. They scaled cliffs (and I mean straight up and down for at least a half mile) with ropes at 5 AM with Germans throwing grenades and cutting their climbing ropes. They had gotten wet as they swam ashore so I can’t even imagine how they were able to throw them high enough to get anywhere while under fire. At the end of taking Point Du Hoc (which they did succeed at) they had a 60% casualty rate. Staggering…. After they finally made it there; the troops found out that while there were gun emplacements there, there were no guns. It was telephone poles made to look like guns. Althought it wasn't all for naught. The real guns were found about 2 km further down the way and the Germans hadn't gotten orders yet to fire them so the guns were captured.
St. Mary E’Glise was the first town in Normandy to be liberated during Project Overlord. The paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne and 101st Airborne were dropped further inland and their job was to secure a route for the troops that were storming the beaches. During the bombardment of St. Mary E’Glise, 2 paratroopers got their parachutes caught on the steeple of the church and survived by playing dead and hung there for over 2 hours before the heaving fighting was over and being taken hostage only to escape during the chaos shortly afterward. There is now an effigy of one of the paratroopers and his parachute still hanging on the church’s steeple.

I don’t really have any words to comment on the cemeteries. It was just too sad. In the American one there are over 9,000 men buried there with an additional 60% of the casualties having been taken back to the states to be buried by their families when the cemetery was first put in. The Germans who died do not have that luxury. This courtesy has not been bestowed upon them, although relations are improving year by year. Now it goes without saying that there were certainly horrible people in the German Army; SS, Gestapo, etc. but the majority of its fighting (infantry) army (especially in Normandy) were normal people who were not given the choice of whether or not they wanted to fight. There are no words to express the sight of all these young men who gave up their lives courageously so that we live in a free world. I was reminded today as I was standing, slack jawed at the cemetery, something I heard in a sermon a few weeks ago. “Bless me Lord in my unthankfulness because if you were to bless me in my thankfulness, I would starve.” Thank you Granddad and all the other veterans that served, serve, and will serve in the future.