My final day on the Normandy beaches.
Frankly, I was starting to get a bit “museum-ed out” ( if you see what I mean !), so I decided in the interests of fairness, I would visit the German cemetery at La Cambe, the American Ranger memorial at Pointe de Hoc, OMAHA beach itself and then turn south to Thouars in the late afternoon.
The German cemetery is different, in that there are plaques on the ground rather than vertical stones. Also a big mound in the middle for a mass grave for the unknown warriors. More than 21 thousand dead buried her. The German authorities have decided to have a Peace Garden, comprising trees stretching along the entrance road. The exhibition is very much pointed toward re-conciliation and teaching the youth of today why wars, generally, are an incredibly bad idea.
Along the way, stumbled into Grandcamp-Maisy, a port with REAL fishing boats and a REAL fish market. Obviously still thriving. Just outside the village is an enormous stainless steel statue, erected as part of the World Peace Foundation’s work after the war, 10 m tall and weighting 12 tons.
Pointe du Hoc was my next stop. This was an extremely important target for the Allies during D-Day, as the Pointe was the home of a German gun battery which overlooked Omaha Beach. The American Rangers were tasked to scale the cliffs and knock out the guns. Remember the scenes from the LONGEST DAY ? The American funded visitors centre and the associated information plaques are truly impressive – even the car park is well organised. Much of the site has been left as it was, with bomb craters everywhere. You can even go into the bunker from which the Germans high command spotted the incoming armada.
At Vierville, there are several memorials, including one actually set into beach, called Les Braves, made from stainless steel and representing the rise of freedom. Huge beach !
Just up the road (on one of the few exit roads from the beach) is the Omaha Beach Memorial Museum. Very American oriented, there is a series of diorama’s depicting what it was actually like day-to-day on the beach and its surroundings, including loads of hardware. Completely different from the other museums and (frankly) refreshingly so ! Good cinema presentation as well.
So back to Caen, point south towards Alencon, turn off the autoroute at Saumur and then to my sister’s house in Thouars.
My overall impression of the D-Day beaches ? I need more time ! The whole subject is HUGE ! I have been genuinely surprised by the whole scale of things. I think I now know enough to do a bit more reading/digging. Rumour has it that my father ( who was in the Royal Army Medical Corps) came over in the second wave, so that might be an interesting avenue to explore. Will have to re-visit next year – but I won’t choose August again !