April 3
Good morning everyone. Didn’t post last night so thought we’d put something up this morning before we leave for our day of sightseeing.
Yesterday (Monday) we spent mostly on the Normandy landing beaches of Utah and Omaha. There’s not much to actually see on the beaches but Utah has a very nice museum commemorating the landing. We actually spent almost 2 1/2 hours looking at all the exhibits.
Then we headed out to Saint Mere Eglise which is one of the towns that figured prominently in the movie “The Longest Day”. We saw the church where Red Button’s character (John Steele is real name) got his parachute hung up on the steeple of the church. There’s a replica of that on the church. When we can upload pictures again (hopefully tomorrow) you’ll see a parachute hanging from one of the church spires and a manikin hanging from the side of the church. Kind of hokey but cool. After lunch we visited the museum dedicated to the 82nd Airborne, which is one of the two Airborne divisions (the other is the 101st Screaming Eagles; Easy Company from Band of Brothers was in the 101st) that parachuted into Normandy on June 6th. The 82nd primarily landed in St. Mere Eglise and is responsible for its liberation. The museum was very well done, and it was another couple of hours to see all of those exhibits.
From St. Mere Eglise we headed to Point du Hoc where the Army Rangers lost more than half their men scaling 90-foot cliffs to take out the big guns. When they finally made it to the top the found the guns had been relocated. When they finally found them, the guns were aimed right at Utah and Omaha beach. Luckily the Rangers disabled them before they could be fired. The ground around the area is filled with giant holes from the intense naval bombardment that occurred for days before the invasion. They looked like giant gopher holes. There are also some bunkers and pillboxes. It looks like they left everything exactly as it was during the invasion, so it was easy to get a picture in our minds as to what it looked like on June 6th.
Our final stop of the day was Omaha beach. Again, not much to see on the beach except a few memorials but it was still a sobering site. Knowing the carnage that occurred at what is now a very peaceful, beautiful beach was very thought provoking. By this time, it was after 6pm and the museum was closed but we don’t think we’ll go back to it. Lynn was there in 06 with her mom and remembers it as being small and not as interesting as the museum at Utah.
We wanted to go to the American Military Cemetery, but it closed at 5pm so that’s on our list for today.
So, it’s Tuesday morning and today we’re going to the museum here in Bayeaux, then we’re off to the cemetery. Depending on what time it is when we’re done there, we may head to Caen to check out William the Conqueror’s castle. We’ll keep you posted.
Love to all.