(Mostly by Sydelle)
We took the French train, SNCF, to Bayeux on Tuesday morning August 24. An easy ride to the countryside which is beautiful. The most notable thing for me is that everywhere in France you see beautiful gardens full of blooming flowers mostly roses. On this trip you see a countryside with lots of cows and horses and farmland. It is beautiful with rolling hills. It's not flat till you get to an actual beach and just on the beach itself.
Bayeux is a lovely town that was not damaged during the war. D-Day touristry seems to be a large part of the economy but it has other sights, and is most famous for the Bayeux Tapestry, which is really an extremely long piece of embroidery (about 230 ft) which tells the story of William the Conqueror's conquest of Britain (from the winner's side). It takes about 20 minutes to see, walking along with a guide thing-y telling the story. The horses are very realistic, people not so much though the battle scenes are pretty graphic. After seeing the tapestry we walked around town a bit, got lunch at a nice but not expensive restaurant, and then called for a cab to get us to where we would spend the night, a town on the beach called Courseulles-sur-Mer. There's a bus but it runs about every three hours.
The cab took about half an hour with a detour (and when there are detours in this countryside, that means a few kilometres out of the way). Old country houses on narrow, windy roads; Sydelle was glad that Joe wasn't driving. Joe was not disappointed. The town is draped with flags from many countries. We stayed at a hotel just across from the beach. A two-star French hotel, so not at all luxurious, but the owner-managers were nice. Courseulles sur mer is next to Juno beach where the Canadiens landed. There is a nice museum for the Canadien war efforts and especially the landing at Juno. Sydelle went to the museum while Abby and Joe walked on the beach. She was impressed with how much Canada was able to accomplish for the war effort. They started out with a less dense population and armies but they were instrumental in helping Britain during the blitz and the allied effort in total. They also had one of the most difficult beachfronts to secure. Second only to Omaha which was plagued with mistakes. Courseulles also has a lovely beach albeit pretty cold when we were there. There are fresh seafood/fish markets every day - too bad we couldn't cook. We really enjoyed the sea air and walking along the quai by the beach.
On Wednesday we took a half day tour of the American D Day sites. It would take you days to see everything but i thought this was plenty for my interest. The following information was given to us as we drove around the sites.
We started at Point du Hoc which is on a cliff between the American and British landing sites. The Germans had built bunkers here while they possessed France. We went into one bunker with light in it. There was a large room with bunks 3 high along the walls so it could sleep around 20 soldiers. The allies trained 600 rangers to take this cliff. Before the attack allied planes bombed this site. you can still see the craters the bombs made. Impressive!! Then the rangers were to make their assault on this cliff 10 minutes later. However, the rangers went to the wrong spot so didn't make their assault for 40 minutes after the air assault. OOPS! This gave the Germans time to defend themselves better. Meanwhile, they had actually moved the guns away after one was hit by mistake by a bomb earlier in the year, and were building new emplacements. The troops didn't know that; there is evidence that some generals did. But the rangers did capture the Point and the guns which were further back from the bunkers. Out of 250 rangers, only 80 were unhurt at the end of this battle. Not all died many wounded. Their mistake cost many lives.
Next we drove to Omaha Beach where a bunker still remains. We didn't spend alot of time here because the weather was very rainy during our tour. But we were told that the us coast guard fought in this battle also. The commanders of the coast guard became separated from their troops so this was a problem. It turns out that alot went wrong with this landing. The americans also landed at the wrong beach at the wrong time. It was low tide (planned by the allies to fool the germans) when the boats hit omaha and the allies thought the sandbar was the beach front. This did not work out well for the tanks that drove off the LSTs and onto the sandbar and then... The preceeding air bombardment missed alot of their targets so didn't help the soldiers. Still the beach was captured. Another point about Omaha beach, it is crescent shaped with either end having cliffs.
It is worth noting that all the beaches during the landing are far from each other. Omaha and Juno are like 30 miles, Omaha and Utah are 12 miles apart. Once the soldiers were on land they had to go thru the countryside which used hedges to separate farms and protect crops and livestock from the wind. These hedges are very thick and hard to get through. These were a real obstacle to the allies and their equipment. Equipment was getting stuck getting thru the hedges and also that there were trenches or ditches along many hedges. The hedges also provided lots of hiding places for the Germans to conduct ambushes and use snipers.
We then drove to the American cemetary and memorial. The grounds are beautifully manicured with flowers and trees everywhere. First as you walk into the cemetary is a wall of the MIAs. Then you walk into a structure with a wall depicting the entire european military assault from D Day on. Then there are the gravesites. Families could choose to bury their loved ones in this cemetary or bring them home. 60% brought them home. Soldiers were buried according to when they died with the first rows D day and then soldiers from the european invasion. Crosses and stars of david are interspersed together and not separate. There is also a chapel in the middle of the grounds. The cemetary overlooks Omaha beach. The scenery couldn't be more beautiful and poignant. Each marker has the soldier's name, home city, and date died or buried.
The graves are in perfect lines on the green grass.
When you get to the chapel, you take a right toward the US memorial. This is so well done. The footage of actual battle scenes were amazing. As you walk out there is a hall where the names of the soldiers buried are said. Very moving. No bookstore!!!!!
Great trip. Something for everyone. I was as you can tell really moved by the Dday sites. We will download some pictures for you to see so enjoy.
We took the French train, SNCF, to Bayeux on Tuesday morning August 24. An easy ride to the countryside which is beautiful. The most notable thing for me is that everywhere in France you see beautiful gardens full of blooming flowers mostly roses. On this trip you see a countryside with lots of cows and horses and farmland. It is beautiful with rolling hills. It's not flat till you get to an actual beach and just on the beach itself.
Bayeux is a lovely town that was not damaged during the war. D-Day touristry seems to be a large part of the economy but it has other sights, and is most famous for the Bayeux Tapestry, which is really an extremely long piece of embroidery (about 230 ft) which tells the story of William the Conqueror's conquest of Britain (from the winner's side). It takes about 20 minutes to see, walking along with a guide thing-y telling the story. The horses are very realistic, people not so much though the battle scenes are pretty graphic. After seeing the tapestry we walked around town a bit, got lunch at a nice but not expensive restaurant, and then called for a cab to get us to where we would spend the night, a town on the beach called Courseulles-sur-Mer. There's a bus but it runs about every three hours.
The cab took about half an hour with a detour (and when there are detours in this countryside, that means a few kilometres out of the way). Old country houses on narrow, windy roads; Sydelle was glad that Joe wasn't driving. Joe was not disappointed. The town is draped with flags from many countries. We stayed at a hotel just across from the beach. A two-star French hotel, so not at all luxurious, but the owner-managers were nice. Courseulles sur mer is next to Juno beach where the Canadiens landed. There is a nice museum for the Canadien war efforts and especially the landing at Juno. Sydelle went to the museum while Abby and Joe walked on the beach. She was impressed with how much Canada was able to accomplish for the war effort. They started out with a less dense population and armies but they were instrumental in helping Britain during the blitz and the allied effort in total. They also had one of the most difficult beachfronts to secure. Second only to Omaha which was plagued with mistakes. Courseulles also has a lovely beach albeit pretty cold when we were there. There are fresh seafood/fish markets every day - too bad we couldn't cook. We really enjoyed the sea air and walking along the quai by the beach.
On Wednesday we took a half day tour of the American D Day sites. It would take you days to see everything but i thought this was plenty for my interest. The following information was given to us as we drove around the sites.
We started at Point du Hoc which is on a cliff between the American and British landing sites. The Germans had built bunkers here while they possessed France. We went into one bunker with light in it. There was a large room with bunks 3 high along the walls so it could sleep around 20 soldiers. The allies trained 600 rangers to take this cliff. Before the attack allied planes bombed this site. you can still see the craters the bombs made. Impressive!! Then the rangers were to make their assault on this cliff 10 minutes later. However, the rangers went to the wrong spot so didn't make their assault for 40 minutes after the air assault. OOPS! This gave the Germans time to defend themselves better. Meanwhile, they had actually moved the guns away after one was hit by mistake by a bomb earlier in the year, and were building new emplacements. The troops didn't know that; there is evidence that some generals did. But the rangers did capture the Point and the guns which were further back from the bunkers. Out of 250 rangers, only 80 were unhurt at the end of this battle. Not all died many wounded. Their mistake cost many lives.
Next we drove to Omaha Beach where a bunker still remains. We didn't spend alot of time here because the weather was very rainy during our tour. But we were told that the us coast guard fought in this battle also. The commanders of the coast guard became separated from their troops so this was a problem. It turns out that alot went wrong with this landing. The americans also landed at the wrong beach at the wrong time. It was low tide (planned by the allies to fool the germans) when the boats hit omaha and the allies thought the sandbar was the beach front. This did not work out well for the tanks that drove off the LSTs and onto the sandbar and then... The preceeding air bombardment missed alot of their targets so didn't help the soldiers. Still the beach was captured. Another point about Omaha beach, it is crescent shaped with either end having cliffs.
It is worth noting that all the beaches during the landing are far from each other. Omaha and Juno are like 30 miles, Omaha and Utah are 12 miles apart. Once the soldiers were on land they had to go thru the countryside which used hedges to separate farms and protect crops and livestock from the wind. These hedges are very thick and hard to get through. These were a real obstacle to the allies and their equipment. Equipment was getting stuck getting thru the hedges and also that there were trenches or ditches along many hedges. The hedges also provided lots of hiding places for the Germans to conduct ambushes and use snipers.
We then drove to the American cemetary and memorial. The grounds are beautifully manicured with flowers and trees everywhere. First as you walk into the cemetary is a wall of the MIAs. Then you walk into a structure with a wall depicting the entire european military assault from D Day on. Then there are the gravesites. Families could choose to bury their loved ones in this cemetary or bring them home. 60% brought them home. Soldiers were buried according to when they died with the first rows D day and then soldiers from the european invasion. Crosses and stars of david are interspersed together and not separate. There is also a chapel in the middle of the grounds. The cemetary overlooks Omaha beach. The scenery couldn't be more beautiful and poignant. Each marker has the soldier's name, home city, and date died or buried.
The graves are in perfect lines on the green grass.
When you get to the chapel, you take a right toward the US memorial. This is so well done. The footage of actual battle scenes were amazing. As you walk out there is a hall where the names of the soldiers buried are said. Very moving. No bookstore!!!!!
Great trip. Something for everyone. I was as you can tell really moved by the Dday sites. We will download some pictures for you to see so enjoy.
PS. We have a video we want to upload but cannot do so yet. Hopefully we will figure this out. I decided to show pictures by site so it won't be so confusing.
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