Normandy and the DDay Beaches

Today may have been one of the most emotional and moving days of my life. I woke up this morning and left for my tour, Overlord tours, on the DDay beaches this morning. All of the tours in Bayeux leave from the same point. The tour guide we had was from England and is a WWII history buff, so while we were driving there, he gave us even more information about anything we asked.

A great group we had going today: me, 2 guys from Cali, some Packers fans from Chicago, a couple from Houston and a father and son from England. Our first stop on our tour was Point du Hoc, where the Rangers stormed the cliffs to attack the german artillery. These cliffs are incredible and its crawy to imagine these men climbing with all of their equipment. The tops of the cliffs there are still remaining bunkers, pillboxes (Germans hid the guns and sheltered there) and empty spaces where the cannons used to be. The bunkers from the air raids are incredible and just so deep into the ground, you can see where the land used to be flat but now is just infested from the air raids. In some of the pill boxes you can see where the American artillery shells hit, even the circle from the casing is still evident. On our tour this morning it was rainy and windy and cold, almost eerie because of where we were to not have this excellent weather ive experienced almost the entire trip.

Our next stop was Omaha Beach. Famously portrayed in Saving Private Ryan ( which shamefully i still havent seen it, but will as soon as i get home). We parked in Dog Green which is one of the sections of the beach that actually extends 5 miles total. Each of the different sections had different names for the battalions to know where they were. Now looking at this beach today it seems as though it would be an easy assault, but rather it was the most difficult place of the entire assault on all the beaches. Here the Atlantic Wall rested created by the Germans. Full of large metal and wood blocks to stop troops and their platoons to reaching very far. Not to mention on this same day the tide was almost of out of control creating giant waves and pushing the groups further north than they had expected to be. Sitting on some benches we were given a few minutes to sit and reflect on the events of the day. Its almost unreal how much they did in that day and in the days after. You can picture it all if you close your eyes and just breathe in the ocean air.

Our last stop was the American Cemetary. This area of Normandy is owned by the United States, given to them from France. Employees are all considered US employees. There are 3 criteria for this land:

1. the curator must be a war veteran, not just WWII but a war veteran. The current curator is a veteran from the Normandy invasion.
2. The vegitation in the park must be green year round. They have kentucky bluegrass, evergreen trees and other vegitation that normally is in the US and because of the climate here its green year round.
3. Non profit. There is no gift shop, no where to buy memoribilia, you cant even buy bottled water. Its just for the sole purpose of commemorating the fallen Soldiers of the Normandy Invasion.

When I went to the Veitnam War Memorial for the first time in Washington DC i was brought to tears then. Today was just the same. Walking into the cemetary the first is the memorial constructed with the map of the entire DDay plans and assaults. In the center is a statue representing all of the soldiers who fought through a spirit of courage and honor splashing out of the water. In front of this memorial seperating it from the actual cemetary is a reflecting pool, with the same depth as the reflecting pool in Washington DC. Walking around the cemetary it really makes you think about how many men were killed not only in this part of the war, but throught out the entire war all over the world. Within the cemetary there are 3 medals of honor and one belongs to Teddy Roosevelt Jr who died in action. Next to him is Quentin Roosevelt who is the only person buried there who died in WWI. There are 3 women, 148 African American soldiers, and about 344 Jewish soldiers. There are sets of brothers and the most emotional of them all: a father and son, buried next to one another. The mother, living in Nebraska received news of their deaths 45 minutes apart. Emotions running, I couldnt help but shed a few tears. Within this cemetary are the Niland brothers with whom Saving Private Ryan is about. They have small flowers you can take to put on a headstone of your choosing. I picked one up and found a man who was from WI, I put mine there. For all soldiers who were unidentified or lost in battle theyre headstones read: "Here rests in honored glory a comrade in arms known but to God".

After the tour was over, me and the guys who were from California went into Caen to the War museum there which dates from the end of WWI to post WWII ( the Cold War). There is so much in this museum, while we were only there for a few hours one could easily spend all day there. All different kinds of artifacts are there including letters from soldiers to their families, bibles, and a wedding dress made from the parachute of a soldier. After the museum we still had time until going to back to Bayeux so we went into the castle of William the Conqueror. This place is pretty much destroyed other than the castle walls, but how could it not be, it was built around 1025.

We came back to Bayeux ans had a nice dinner on the little river and then since we were all exhausted weve headed back to our hotels. Today was really an incredible day and I hope to someday come back here and explore all of the land. My goal is to start from the northern most part and bike all the way down to utah beach. People have done it, its hard but they said its worth it because you get to see so much more.

Tomorrow afternoon Im off to Bern but I dont get in until 1000 pm so ill be tired. 4 days left then its back to Wisco... cant wait to see my family.

This truly has been an incredilbe trip this far.