D-Day Landings

In the early hours of June 6, 1944, Allied forces began landing on the shores of Normandy, the first step in a long-planned invasion of German-occupied France, known as Operation Overlord.  Parachutists were dropped near Ste-Mère-Église and Pegasus Bridge, and seaborne assaults were made along a string of code-named beaches.  U.S. troops landed on Utah and Omaha in the west, while British and Canadian troops landed at Gold, Juno and Sword.  Over seventy years on, the beaches are still referred to by their code names.

Pegasus Bridge, where the first French house was liberated, is a natural starting point for a tour around the sites and memorials. 

  
 





This is the original bridge that has been set within the museum grounds.

Parachutists and glider-borne troops landed on the night of June 5, 1944, the first liberators to set foot in Normandy.  They took up positions next to Pegasus Bridge to protect their flank from any German counter-attack coming from the east.

 

Pegasus Bridge is a bascule bridge (a type of movable bridge) built in 1934, that crossed the Caen Canal, between Caen and Ouistreham, in Normandy. 

  

 

  

An original aspect of British Airborne operations in Normandy was the use of gliders (planeurs Horsa), for the first time, on a large scale.  352 of them transported men and materiel into the Ranville-Bénouville area.  Three of them landed on the night of June 5th, next to Pegasus Bridge. 

 

The gliders were designed to be used once ("disposable gliders").  After the war, the gliders were destroyed or recovered by local inhabitants enabling them to have, at no cost, plywood, a rare commodity at the time.

 



 

 This is the new replacement bridge currently in use.

Can you spot Karl in his blue shirt and white cap?

 

 

More Canadian tourists?  Mallard ducks.

 



Canadian flag flying prominently on this jeep.

 

This next museum is in Ouistreham. 

 

 

Very poignant to watch this young man guide his elderly relative onto one of the water vehicles that stormed the beaches.

 

Further west, evocative ruins of the artificial harbour towed across from England survive at Arromanches-les-Bains. 

This photo does not do justice to the Mulberry Harbour, seen in the far distance, a portable temporary harbour developed by the British in World War II to facilitate rapid offloading of cargo onto the beaches during the Allied invasion of Normandy.

Prefabricated or artificial military harbours were taken in sections across the English Channel from Britain with the invading army and assembled off the coast of Normandy as part of the D-Day.  The surviving Mulberry "B" came to be known as Port Winston at Arromanches.  The Royal Engineers built a complete Mulberry harbour out of 600,000 tons of concrete between 33 jetties, and had 10 miles (15 km) of floating roadways to land men and vehicles on the beach.

One of the best coverage of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy can be found in Arromanches at the 360 degree circular cinema.  You stand in the middle of the theatre and watch the projection of thousands of images on 9 huge screens.  It tells the story of the 100 days of the Battle of Normandy thanks to archive images gathered from around the world.  This film is a tribute to soldiers from all countries and to the 20,000  civilians who were killed during this battle for the liberation of Europe, battle which gave rise to so much hope.  I found it very moving and was brought to tears several times during the presentation.

 Some of the snapshots taken from the film, hanging in the lobby.

Arromanches is in the middle of the beaches and you can glimpse a small fraction of the beach that extends to the west with Utah and Omaha, and to the east with Gold, Juno and Sword.



Karl in deep thought as he walks the beach.

 

The flowers and wreaths have wilted since June 6th, but the memories have not.

As we drove the route, so many houses had allied flags fluttering in the breeze.  Many signs simply said, "Merci".  (Canada flew the British Ensign during those years because we only got our Canadian flag with the maple leaf in 1965.)

This is a German gun battery with a 50 mm anti-tank gun.  The Allied soldiers faced formidable odds when they landed on the beaches because they were exposed and the Germans were well protected.

Over 110,000 died from both sides:  77,866 German, 9,386 American, 17,769 British, 5,002 Canadian and 650 Poles.

Between 15,000 and 20,000 French civilians were killed, mainly as a result of Allied bombing.

 

American tank

This bike was not part of any of the museums, but it was old and Karl wanted to remember it and how it is still in beautiful working order.

 

 

We ended up in Caen for dinner, eating in the Vieux Quartier (Old Quarter).  We parked right across the Renaissance church Église St-Pierre, on the south side of the castle.

Some streets have some lovely half-timbered buildings.









Thought for the day:  Despite our original disappointment, we are so pleased that we visited all the sites a few days later.  We spoke to parking attendants who described how some people walked kilometers to get to the ceremonies, despite having parking stickers.  We spoke to an American from Jersey who said he and his friends stayed in Caen and were bused in for the ceremonies, but mentioned that the roads were eerily empty because they were closed to the general public.  Only tour buses or cars with the appropriate stickers were allowed on certain roads.  Having visited the sites where these ceremonies took place, I know for sure we had a better view on TV than had we been there in person.  I also think we were able to appreciate the magnitude and importance and sacrifice of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy in a thoughtful way without the celebratory atmosphere of an "event".

It is impossible to visit all 5 beaches, all the museums, and all the cemeteries in one day; it would take weeks and months.  If you wish to read about our 2012 visit to Juno, the Canadian landing beach, this is the link:  http://thouarsencore.blogspot.fr/2012/08/juno-beach.html