"The battle belonged that morning to the thin, wet line of khaki that dragged itself ashore on the channel coast of France" - General Omar N. Bradley
So you may think that being the daughter of a History Teacher is the reason I decided to visit Normandy - and more specifically, Omaha Beach. The sight of the American D-Day invasion. You would be partially right in that assumption. The full reason; however, is that my grandfather and both great uncles all fought in WWII. It is difficult to imagine today, how mothers and families felt - sending all 3 sons off to a war of that magnitude. Having Bill in Iraq almost killed my Mom (I don't use that term lightly) - she genuinely aged at least 10 years in the months that he was away. She gained an entirely new perspective on what her grandmother and mother experienced during the early 1940's. Thankfully, all 3 returned home with only "minor" injuries. My grandfather had a building fall on him in China which shattered his ankle - but they all came home unlike so many others.
When I trekked down to Austin in 2008 to visit my friend Keith, and to squeeze in a family visit with my "Uncle" (this is actually Great-Uncle), I was genuinely surprised to hear that my Uncle Mike stormed the beaches of Normandy. How had I never heard this from Mom?! I had only ever heard about Paw-Paw and Iran and China! He didn't talk much about it at our lunch - but this seems to be typical of that generation. They are not about bragging - they just did what needed to be done. They fought for a "cause" not a "conquest". When I decided to go on this trip - I knew I wanted to go to the Brittany and Normandy coasts - they are the lesser visited parts of France (and definitely less crowded...which suits me perfectly!). A place where history was made and where America took its place as the world's Leader.
After spending the night in Caen - "Can"- I set out the next morning planning to meander along the coastline. I knew my various destinations, but I was determined to stay off the motorways and stick to the back-roads. This was a good decision (as it usually is...). I was treated to the early morning sight of wheat fields, suffused in golden light with a gentle mist hovering over them. In other words - picture perfect French countryside. I decided to roll my windows down to smell the cool, early morning air....but immediately rolled them right back up again after being assaulted with "cow smell". It doesn't matter that they were French cows....cows smell like cows and there is nothing romantic about it!
I continued along, passing through the town that "houses" Juno Beach - the sight of the Canadian landing. I was on a mission for St. Laurent sur Mer - or more famously....Omaha Beach. Regardless if you choose to hate the French, one has to give them credit for clearly marking all their historic sites with big brown signs that have a picture of what you will see on them. This was true for Omaha Beach - it receives a lot of attention there and is given its due.
I started to get teary in the car just thinking about what had happened on this Beach - and I wasn't even there yet!! I hadn't seen a thing. I did think about a program I like to watch on Sundays called "Fareed Zakaria - GPS" - check it out on CNN if you've never seen it. Fareed is the Global editor of Newsweek, has some of the world's leading statesmen and individuals on his show, has written a book that both Bill and I have read called "The Post-American World" - and is just an overall, smarty-pants badass. Anyways - he likes to ask a question at the end of each of his shows and I've always remembered this one...."What is the greatest strategic blunder in Modern History?" I know you could go in many different directions with this question - and that is probably the idea. Mom and I got on the phone after watching this episode and came up with the answer (which I submitted on his website) - "The US's failure to make provisions for the Palestinians upon the recognition of Israel in 1948". We thought that one was pretty good. We tuned in the following week to see what the "answer" would be - would our names be read out?? No, our "blunder" was not selected as the "greatest" This was....."The Japanese's underestimation of the US's ability to mobilize and enter WWII". Huh - we hadn't even thought of that.
So here I am at St. Laurent sur Mer - approaching the beach....knowing I'm about to view a piece of history meaningful only to a small portion of the world's population. I couldn't decide what order to make my visits that day - the beach, the museum, the cemetery....or - the cemetery, the museum, the beach....or....the museum, the beach, the cemetery?? I decided to let the car do what it wanted to do....I'd just follow along and trust it.
The answer turned out to be 1. The Beach 2. The Museum 3. The Cemetery and 4. Point du Hoc (a surprise visit). I think I did the right thing - I ended up going to the beach twice - once before the museum and once after the cemetery on the way to Point du Hoc.
The Beach is fairly ordinary - save for the fact that there are 2 large monuments there. One leading up to the water of a reddish gold material and a modern statue right on the sand that is silver/aluminum and Modern looking.
The first leading to the beach says...."1st US Infantry Division....No Mission Too Difficult, No Sacrifice Too Great...Duty First. Forced Omaha Beach at Dawn 6 June 1944"
The second statue is called "Les Braves" and was made by Anilore Banon. I heard some people around me say that they didn't like this thing. And I'll admit...It's not wonderful - it's definitely modern, but it does have a certain beauty to it, especially with the gold of the sand, the blue reflection of the sky and the water and the sun sparking upon it. There are 3 elements to it....
1. The Wings of Hope - So that the spirit which carried these men on June 6,1944 continues to inspire us, reminding us that together it is always possible to change the future.
2. Rise Freedom! - So that the example of those who rose against barbarity, help us remain standing strong against all forms of inhumanity.
3. The Wings of Fraternity - So that this surge of brotherhood always reminds us of our responsibility towards others as well as ourselves. On June 6, 1944, these men were more than soldiers, they were brothers.
I stayed here for a little bit, marveling that the beach today shows no signs of what took place there in 1944. I don't know if I expected it to - perhaps....
I then went to the museum, which is just up the road from the beach. It's a small museum, but well done. Along one wall, you have a diorama set up with men in uniform, various battle situations and sound effects - the sound of planes flying overhead, bombs exploding and machine-gun fire. Wrapping around the center of the room are glass cases with memorabilia - 20 different kinds of cigarettes, matches, pistols, hats and helmets, guns and knives, sports equipment, writing instruments, eating utensils, etc. As you wrap around, you come to the photographs - my favorite part. I just love looking at these old pictures. They are arranged in chronological order - the days leading up to the invasion, the invasion and the aftermath. So many of these men were incredibly good-looking, smiling for the camera - laying in their bunks with their shirts off, playing cards and just hanging out. Anyone who knows me, knows how viscerally I feel the images of war....I have only really watched Platoon once, Saving Private Ryan (about this invasion) once, Apacolypse Now once...and so forth and so on. The first 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan were torture for me. I had my hands on either side of my head in horror, just wanting the mayhem on the screen to stop. And that was just a movie made 50+ years later. Anyways - I hate war movies. Strangely, while I was looking at these pictures of boys who had been blown apart, and pictures of medics evacuating the wounded....."Somewhere Over the Rainbow" started playing in the diorama behind me. Talk about an out of body experience.....
"Someday I'll wish upon a star and wake up where the clouds are far behind me. Where troubles melt like lemon drops away above the chimney tops...That's where you'll find me....."
So - for those of you who don't know much about D-Day....here you go...
It was at the Quebec Conference in 1943 that the decision was taken to launch a major landing on continental Europe during the Spring 1944, codenamed "Operation Overlord". The actual assault was codenamed "Operation Neptune". The mass of ships, men, assault vehicles, etc. was the "Largest Armada" the world had ever seen....and it was on its way to liberate Europe.
Contrary to what the German command had been expecting, the site for the attack was not to be the north coast of France, closest to Great Britain, but the beaches along the Seine Estuary. A series of criteria were necessary to determine the precise day and time of the assault.
1. Rommel's defenses had been placed on the beach in such a way to anticipate an attack at high tide. The assault would have to happen midway through the rising tide so that the landing craft would not become snagged on the defensive spikes set up by the Germans - i.e. Mid-Rising Tide
2. For the airborne troops, the mission would require a full moon - i.e. a Dawn preceded by a Full Moon
3. A naval bombardment of the German defenses 45 minutes prior to the landings had to take place in the first light of dawn to be able to pinpoint the targets.
These 3 conditions only occurred on a few days each month. Eisenhower settled on the 5th of June with the option of delaying operations to th 6th or 7th. As it happened, bad weather in the Channel in early June forced Eisenhower to delay the landing from the 5th of June until the 6th by which time the conditions were due to improve....Just prior to the invasion, General Eisenhower transmitted a now-historic message to all members of the Allied Expeditionary Force. It read, in part, "You are about to embark upon the great crusade, toward which we have striven these many months." In his pocket was a statement, never used, to be read in case the invasion failed.
Between 6:30am and 7:30am on June 6th, 1944 - under Lieutenant General Frederick Morgan, the largest amphibious invasion in world history was executed by land, sea and air elements under direct British command with over 160,000 troops landing on beaches codenamed - Sword, Juno, Gold, Omaha and Utah. The British landed at Sword and Gold, the Canadians at Juno and the Americans at Utah and Omaha. "Saving Private Ryan" depicts the landing at Omaha- where the fiercest fighting took place and where Omaha became known as "Bloody Omaha".
At this point in the museum, I was able to watch a video in English...this is what I gleaned from it...
1. These brave men considered themselves lucky to be taking part in this operation - "How lucky we were to be the ones to go on this mission."
2. As the ships approached Omaha, it was dead quiet onboard as the "sun rose over Omaha".
3. At 6:30am, things began to go wrong as the bombs launched from far off Naval destroyers had missed their targets and left the German defenses intact.
4. As the men rushed off the boats, they discovered they were "let off" farther out than anticipated, and loaded down with their heavy gear....many drowned immediately.
5. By 7am, the troops were pinned down on the beaches, with German machine guns raking the shoreline. The next wave was coming ashore but had nowhere to go - they were totally exposed.
5. Of the 16 tanks that landed upon the shores of Omaha Beach only 2 survived the landing. The official record stated that "within 10 minutes of the ramps being lowered, [the leading] company had become inert, leaderless and almost incapable of action. Every officer and sergeant had been killed or wounded.
6. It was only by the sheer determination of these men and the overwhelming numbers that allowed this mission to be successful. The Germans were eventually overrun, the beaches taken and at that point - the Americans could look back at the beach - littered with the carnage of war - and truly appreciate the scale of the mission they had accomplished.
7. The evacuation of the wounded began to take place - again, the largest operation of its kind ever undertaken with evacuation by air used en masse for the first time. Over the next 3 months, 20,000 wounded were air lifted back to England...9,000 in August alone.
8. Immediately, the Allied forces cleared a landing strip and built 2 makeshift harbors....all within ONE WEEK!!!
9. The Battle of Normandy lasted another 3 months, much longer than originally planned by the Allied strategists with July being the blackest month. The British and Canadians were held up outside of Caen (this is where I stayed....it was completely destroyed in WWII) and the Americans were bogged down on the Cotentin- encountering more fierce fighting in what was called "The Battle of the Hedgerows".
10. The success of "Operation Cobra" allowed the Americans to definitively break throughout the enemy defenses and strike out towards Brittany and the Loire - both places I had just come from.
11. At the beginning of August, the failure of the counter-attack ordered by Hitler led to the retreat of the German forces, threatened with encirclement and almost wiped out in the Falaise-Pocket at the end of the month.
During the video - I also learned about another successful mission by American Rangers at La Pointe du Hoc. This was a strategic point held by the Germans that looked out over Utah Beach to the West and Omaha Beach to the East - it was thought critical to take out the heavy artillery held here. A group of 225 specially trained Rangers, commanded by Colonel J.E. Rudder were tasked with scaling these huge, 100 ft. slippery cliffs with specifically designed climbing gear - fitted ladders and grabs. The Rangers were supposed to begin scaling the cliffs at 5:30am - before the D-Day assault- but they were dropped far off course and had to trek 3 miles to reach their destination. By this time, they had lost the element of surprise and had to scale the cliffs with not only Germans firing machine guns down at them, but the Germans cutting their ropes. Still, the Rangers kept climbing and kept climbing. Failure was just not an option. When they breached the cliff, they discovered that there were no cannons - only wooden logs - the Germans had moved them. The fighting continued as the Germans were hidden deep within bombed-out crater holes (still there...but with a sign advising you NOT to venture down into these holes....I did anyways). Over the ensuing hours, the Rangers were victorious, found the heavy artillery, took it out with grenades, pushed onwards for a mile (still under heavy fire) and secured the roads so that the Germans could not set up a roadblock in the future. They were in desperate need of reinforcements and support but none could get to them for over 48 hours....of the 225 men who started the mission, only 90 remained at the end of it. I am so glad I visited La Pointe du Hoc - it should not be missed for anybody seeking to see and understand this historic place - and these men deserve for their efforts to be recognized all these years later.
On my way back to the car, I scolded a German couple for letting their dog "foul" around the craters. They pretended like they didn't understand me for a minute....but they did...and I knew they did. Totally unacceptable to let their dog defecate in such a place. I gave them a piece of paper out of my notebook and stood there watching them until they picked up the poop. Definitely NOT letting Germans shit on that place....literally
That, in a nutshell, was the Battle of Normandy - and the D-Day invasion.
"You can manufacture weapons, and you can purchase ammunition, but you cannot buy valor and you can't pull heroes off an assembly line" - Sergeant John B. Ellery
Onwards to the cemetery.
The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial - if ever there was a place to bring tears to your eyes....this is it. I knew this place was going to be powerful - but it is more than that. You feel small and insignificant within that hallowed place. You feel grateful, proud, sad and inspired. Many say that Arlington is the most beautiful cemetery in the world, but I think The Normandy American Cemetery rivals it.
You walk towards it from the parking lot, past blooming white hydrangeas and first encounter a modern looking gray building. This is the Visitor's Center. I decided to go here on the way out because I wanted to get to the main area as soon as possible....
Picture a beautiful day...the sun shining and a light breeze...an immaculate expanse of lawn - perfectly manicured - the sound of the ocean around you and the call of seagulls echoing. It smelled faintly of freshly cut grass.
As I was getting closer, I rounded a corner where a sign stood saying, "Silence and Respect, please." This sign was in English. I had to read it twice because my brain had become so accustomed to "translating" everything...and then just smiled. Ahhhhhh, English.
This cemetery is not the biggest in the world, but its scale still takes your breath away - 172.5 acres. You round the final bend and spread out before you are 9,387 headstones - all pristine, gleaming white marble. Of those, 9,238 are Latin Crosses and 149 are Stars of David. They are lined up on a razor's edge (and as one guy loudly said..."This was before lasers"....Thanks, guy). I walked among them and noticed that every single stone has a number on the bottom of its back base. The fronts are stark, uniform and somewhat chilling.... 3 lines....
1. Name
2. Rank
3. State of Origin and Date of Death
There is minimal ornamentation throughout the cemetery- a few conically trimmed trees like you would find in a formal garden and some shrubs separating the different quadrants, marked with the "Letters" - A through J. Beds of polyantha roses trim The Garden of the Missing where engraved tablets honor the missing in action who gave their lives in this region - 1,557. A bronze rosette beside a name shows that the remains were later recovered, identified and buried.
There is a set of symbolic statues at the west end - where I and J are located- two statues of Italian Baveno granite representing the United States and France. A chapel sits in the middle of the cemetery where E,F,G & H quadrants are- its mosaic ceiling depicts America blessing her sons as they depart by sea and air, and a grateful France (a woman) bestowing a laurel wreath upon the American dead. Finally the memorial at the east end features a 22ft. statue - The Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves - facing west toward the headstones. Around the small circle at the statue's feet are the words..."Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory of the Coming of the Lord". There is a semi-circular structure around the statue and along the soffit are the words..."This embattled shore, portal of freedom, is forever hallowed by the ideals, the valor and the sacrifices of our fellow countrymen".
Everybody buried here is an American - only 4 civilians merited this honor - one of them a woman...a Red Cross nurse. There are 41 sets of brothers, several fathers and sons, 3 Medal of Honor recipients - 1 of whom was Theodore Roosevelt's son.
"If ever proof were needed that we fought for a cause and not a conquest, it could be found in these cemeteries. Here was our only conquest: All we asked...was enough soil in which to bury our gallant dead." - General Mark W. Clark
France is a place that sometimes makes you want to conceal the fact that you are an American. However, in Normandy - you can hold your head high, stick your chest out, speak your native tongue freely and feel proud that you are an American (cue Lee Greenwood...).
Off I went to Bayeux, to see the famous "Tapisserie" but that is for another posting...
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