Normandy Day 1 - Pointe du Hoc, Omaha Beach, American Cemetery & Memorial, Arromanches 360

10/19/2014

Cliffs of Pointe du Hoc

Angel got her wish today: it was raining and gloomy when we arrived at our first D-Day stop of the day. She didn’t think it should be sunny, as it’d ruin the “atmosphere.” We started the day at Pointe du Hoc for our tour of the D-Day sights. It’s a fitting starting point, as the free visitor’s center oriented us to what happened at the beginning of D-Day. Rangers under the command of Commander James Rudder had to scale 90-feet cliffs under heavy fire from the Germans to secure Pointe du Hoc. The area was considered vital for the Allies’ success that day, as the Germans stored a lot of far-ranging artillery there that had the power to destroy Omaha and Utah beach, as Pointe du Hoc was the highest point between the two beaches. The rangers were charged with securing the area, so that the Germans couldn’t bomb the Allies landing in those beaches.

As President Reagan puts it:

Of the 225 Rangers whose mission it was to scale the cliffs, only 90 survived that day.

The backdrop doesn't do the cliffs justice--it's a vertical 90 feet drops to the beach below

It's freezing here!

We walked around the cliffs, where you can climb down into the German bunkers to see how the soldiers fortified the area. The Germans had originally planned to build 15 of them, but because Allies were heavily bombing the area before D-Day, only 2 were built. The stone walls of these bunkers are over 2m thick!

Captured German bunkers

Dad's so enthused about Normandy, he's walking ahead for once (practically jogging)

You can also see the ginormous craters where the bombs landed: 

Baby's so tiny compared to the craters!

It’s such a peaceful area now, with gorgeous views of the crystalline blue sea…except for the barbed wire that runs all along the coast, remnants of the German-built Atlantic Wall that was supposed to be indestructible.

The Allies felled the entire wall in one day, thanks to the months of intense planning, training, and coordination between countries and different military units. They said the Allies’ concerted effort led to the biggest naval (and air) armada since the Spanish armada in Elizabethan times. One journalist put it as, you could practically walk from ship to ship in the horizon, with how many ships crowded the seas that day.

German bunker where they stored far-ranging cannons, pointed at Omaha and Utah beaches

We drove along narrow, narrow backroads in the countryside to our next destination: Omaha Beach. A major portion of the drive was one-land roads where it’s actually traffic going in two directions. You slow down, drive a bit to the side, and pass the oncoming car. There were a lot of cows, grass fields, and stone cottage buildings that looked like they’d been there for a hundred years or more.

We first went into the Omaha Beach museum, where a lot of servicemen donated relics of their gear and equipment to be put on display. You can see the guns, rifles, weapons, bombs, grenades they used, as well as ration kits, uniforms, tanks, jeeps, etc. Many servicemen also contributed their personal account of what happened to them on D-Day. The Bedford Boys had a nice tributary here.

There were many photographs on display of what happened on D-Day. Among them was a photograph of a sign in German warning of a minefield. The caption explained that these signs were put up by the Germans to impress their commander Rommel when he visited their camp, but no minefields were actually located there. When the Americans saw the signs, they asked a Frenchman where the minefields might be located. The Frenchman replied that if there’s a cow in the field, there aren’t any minefields—and that was how they knew if it was safe to cross or not. Livestock was precious, and it just didn’t make much sense to install a minefield if a cow was going to trip it anyway.

German warning sign of mines ahead

In front of Omaha Beach museum

Sherman tank

Omaha Beach itself is a very pretty stretch of sand and water. The area used to be a summer escape for the French elite in the early 1900s. They built grand villas there that the Germans bombed in WWII as Rommel felt they were in the way. Only 2 villas still stand of the period. I was very surprised by French beaches—they don’t smell of saltwater like American beaches do. It’s just a fresh, breezy smell. The sand is so soft and yellow, the beach used to be known as “Sables d’Or” (translated: golden sand) by the French before the war. Like Pointe du Hoc, it’s so peaceful here now, it’s hard to imagine the atrocities that happened here 70 years ago. One of the stories we read was of a soldier who, as he came ashore from his ship, said the water was a frothy red color, not blue, because blood dyed the seawater red. Another soldier said that his unit was given the order to follow the 116^th regiment after they got on shore. But by the time he got on shore, practically all the 116^th regiment was dead. It was havoc and confusion on shore, or as one soldier put it, “hell.”

Omaha Beach WWII Memorial Sculpture

We went to the American Cemetery and Memorial to see the final resting place of over 9000 American servicemen and women. There is an excellent exhibition center that spans two floors, detailing the beginning stages of planning for D-Day, the logistics, and an hour-by-hour play of what happened during D-Day. Angel thinks this exhibit did a really good job of showing the different facets of the war—the medics’, the nurses’, the paratroopers’, different battalion units’ efforts are detailed here. The cemetery is near Omaha Beach overlooking a cliff, and I thought it was a very fitting final resting place for our fallen heroes.

American Cemetery & Memorial

By this time, it was already 4:30pm (Pointe du Hoc took 2 hours alone). We had to rush a little to catch the last showing of Arromanches 360, as it was a 20 minute drive from the cemetery to Arromanches. Arromanches is a very quaint seascape village…now. In WWII, it was where the British built huge floating concrete harbors in the sea called the “Mulberry harbors” which were used to transport much-needed supplies to the Allies. Sections of the harbors still exist today jutting out of the sea.

Arromanches village

Arromanches 360 is a cinema that shows a WWII film 360 degrees. It’s about 20 minutes long and gives a brief overview, starting from the beginnings of the Third Reich to German occupation, then the fighting in Europe, D-Day, the liberation of France, etc. Most of the photos shown in the movie also pop up in the Omaha Beach museum and American Cemetery exhibit. The coolest thing about the film was when they show the German flags spreading and fanning across Europe, indicating they conquered the areas. Then the flags of different Allied forces fighting inward into the continent, and the ultimate disintegration of German flags.

I was constantly amazed and awed and crying at the bravery of these courageous servicemen. They gave their lives for the ideal of a free world, something that many of us take for granted these days. A lot of the stories we read today are of 17, 18, 24 year old men, some who have never been into battle before D-Day but trained rigorously in preparation of the day. 

Dad wanted a hot dinner so we stopped by McDonald’s on the way back to our hotel. And. Was. Completely. Sticker. Shocked. All the customers in there (all French, btw) were ordering entire bagfuls of Happy Meals, etc. A dinky fish filet burger is 6.70 euros! Christ! They had a promo for a new burger they were introducing, The Chicago burger, so it was cheaper at 5.50 euros. Still. Crazy!