Spring Break: D-Day Part III

As previously mentioned, the reason I came to Normandy was to see the D-Day beaches. I refused to leave Normandy without seeing them and told myself I would do whatever it would take to get to the darned beaches. In general, getting to the northern coast of France, where the five beaches are located, is very simple from Bayeux. However, that pretty little fact applies to people with motor vehicles. Not willing to pay tens of euros for a tour, as comprehensive as they are, I thought I would just take a taxi the six miles to Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery. At the last minute, while perusing the Bayeux tourism website, I found a D-Day tour for 30E, a sum I was willing to pay. The three and a half hour tour would take me to Pointe du Hoc, Omaha Beach, and the American War Cemetery.

Pointe du Hoc-On a cliff hanging over the English Channel, Pointe du Hoc was a German post during the war. This was the only spot along the coast protected by the Germans. On the morning of June 6, 1944, the allied troops took the unsuspecting Nazi bastards by surprise. Almost sixty six years later, the German bunkers are still there. Dark gray stone, some of it crumbling a little. Dirty stone floors, cold and hard. Artillery holes sparsely scattered throughout the bunker walls. The grassy field leading up to the cliff, once smooth, is now a series of giant bomb and shell craters--a result of the attack. The gray morning and cold April wind cover the cliff in a somber blanket, like the grainy, black and white photographs of Pointe du Hoc in 1944 that our tour guide shows us. Looking at the frothy waves of the English Channel slapping the rocks, I try to imagine the bunkers and fields filled with soldiers, fighting and yelling. Somehow, I can almost see it. History does not leave the cliff.


Omaha Beach-Located on the seaside village of Vierville-sur-Mer and surrounded by bluffs, Omaha Beach was one of the two American beaches during the invasion, the other being Utah Beach. The pale beige sand stretches five miles, the soldiers' footprints long gone. Pieces of floating harbor, makeshift structures built to facilitate the unloading of supplies, peak out of the water. Several bunkers stand eroding on the perimeter of the beach, chunks of stone gouged out with artillery. The tide is fairly low. The vast, empty beach makes me sad. I cannot seem to separate myself from the chilling feeling that I am somewhere else in time, somewhere that is not quite 1944 but not 2010, either. Is this what history does?


American War Cemetery-The cemetery, erected in Colleville-sur-Mer, overlooks Omaha Beach below. The pristine green lawn stretches far into the distance, spotless white gravestones neatly aligned in rows. The beautiful cemetery gives off an unmistakeable feeling of peace, rest, and tranquility. The countless rows of marble gravestones are visual proof of how many men lost their lives during the war, and these are just the Americans.


P.S.-The tour was worth all 30E.