"The Americans are the only ones in the streets of the town, there are no more Germans. It is an indescribable joy." -Andre Mace, a French Civilian.
The weekend of Thanksgiving, I had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go to Normandy, France and visit the D-Day memorials there. The Air Force Master Sergeant that took us was very knowledgeable of the area and helped to make it a great trip. We left early Friday morning and drove all day. We got a little lost in Paris (that place is a NIGHTMARE to drive in) and got to Normandy in the late afternoon. We visited the memorial cemetery that overlooks Omaha Beach first. Here are some pictures of the cemetery:
This is what you look at as soon as you walk past the initial monument that leads you into the cemetery.
It's so breath-taking to see almost 10,000 white tombstones layed out so perfectly. It's hard to believe that one of the bloodiest battles in American history took place right here.
When we were walking around, we ran into an American tour guide that gave us a brief history of the cemetery. He then asked if we were service members. After we told him that we were, he invited us to retire the colors that night. We were in shock! The following pictures are of myself and RP1 N retiring the colors.
After we were done, the American tour guide invited us to come back the next day where he would give us a VIP tour. He also said that if we went early enough, we could perform the morning colors as well. Of course we took him up on it. So, here are some more pictures of RP1 N and me performing the morning colors.
After we were done, our tour guide took us to the visitors center where we watched a couple of films and walked through the museum of artifacts. After we were done, our tour guide took us outside and showed us different tombstones and brief histories behind them. The following picture is of a tomb of an unknown soldier. There are about 300 unknown graves in the cemetery.
This one interested me because he was from my home state.
When the tour guide showed this one to us, RP1 N and I looked at each other and said, at the same time, "Where was his RP?"
They have special grave markers for service members who were awarded the Medal of Honor.
The tour guide went out of his way to make sure that I saw this grave marker. I'm not really sure why...
When we were done in the cemetery we were taken to a wall outside of the cemetery that is about 100 yards long from one end to the other. It has the names of all of the MIA's listed under each branch of the armed services.
If you look closely along the wall, you will notice an occasional brass marker at the end of a name. That indicates the the remains of this individual have been uncovered. Apparently, it's not uncommon to find remains in the areas where battles were fought. Master Sergeant R who took us found the remains of a German soldier last time he was in Germany.
After a few hours at the cemetery, we decided to drive up the coast and visit Omaha Beach, Pointe du Hoc, and Utah Beach. This is A1C, Myself and RP1 N at Omaha Beach.
We continued west to Pointe du Hoc. This was a piece of land that overlooked both Omaha Beach and Utah Beach that the Germans had completely covered in bunkers and big guns that could have caused a lot of damage. So, the U.S. bombed the living daylights out of the place. After we parked the car, we started following a trail that led through some thick trees. Right before we entered the area, there was a huge hole in the ground about 10 feet deep and 30 feet across. Master Sergeant R said, "That's a bomb crater..."
The three of us that hadn't been there before started freaking out and snapping pictures and he just walked off and chuckled. We found out why a few minutes later when we walked through the trees and saw the rest of the field.
If you look closely, you can see that this field is a swiss cheese of bomb craters that are still there. We spent a while there looking around and touring the bunkers that are still there.
After leaving Pointe du Hoc, we headed over to Utah Beach. I made it a point to remind everyone just how awesome it was for me to be there...
We took off to Sainte-Mère-Église after that. It was the first town to be officially liberated. This is where the paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne and 101st Airborne Divisions landed after overshooting their target. One of them, Private John Steele, got his parachute caught on the steeple of the church and he hung there for two hours watching the fighting below. He pretended to be dead and was finally captured and taken POW by the Germans, only to escape later and be a huge contributor to the Allied efforts in the region. The church now has a monument of him hanging from the steeple.
Inside the church is a stain-glass memorial of the Airborne troops.
When we left the church, our daylight was almost gone, so we decided to go into the town of Bayeux and get some dinner. We went to a bakery and got some goodies and walked around for most of the evening snapping pictures and eating baguettes.
We went back to Bayeux the next morning when there was a little daylight to snap some pictures of the inside of the church.
Then we took some pictures of the outside of the church in the sunrise.
When we were done there and got back to the car, Master Sergeant R asked what we wanted to do next. RP1 N said that when he was deployed during the Bosnia and Kosovo crisis, he was at a flea market where he came across a puzzle of a place called Le Mont Saint-Michel in Northern France that he had always wanted to visit. We looked and saw that it was a quick car ride there, so we went for it. What a great decision!!!
They started building a chapel on Le Mont Saint-Michel in the 700's and kept adding and adding so now there is a huge castle on the hill. This place was very important for the Catholic Church in their record keeping because it used to be that you could only get access to the place by boat. So, when the plague was attacking the rest of Europe, the people there were healthy. As we toured around and climbed to the top, it reminded me of what I see "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry" in my mind when reading the "Harry Potter" books. It was an amazing place with lots to see. We even attended mass there. Even though it was in French, I still thoroughly enjoyed it.
It really turned out to be a great, once-in-a-lifetime, trip. I'm very grateful to have had the opportunity to go to France.
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