Juno & Gold Beaches, Longues sur Mer Battery

I woke up refreshed this morning after sleeping right up until the wake-up call at 7:30. Called home and then went down to breakfast before jumping on the bus at 9:00. We are only touring two beaches today so we got a relatively late start.

Our first stop was the Pegasus Bridge. Most bridges were blown up by the resistance, pathfinders and paratroopers to prevent German reinforcements from arriving at the beaches. This bridge, however, was a crucial link for the allies to push forward off the beaches and into Caen and it had to be captured intact. British Commandos landed just after midnight on the 6th in three gliders. They quickly captured the bridges and then held out the entire day (the longest day) against fierce counter-attack. I think these were the first shots fired on D-Day.

The first beach we hit was Juno where the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division came ashore. We stopped in Bernieres where the Queen's Own Rifles supported by the Fort Garry Horse (armored regiment) captured the town at first light on the 6th of June. The photo shows the first house liberated in the amphibious assault and became the Canadian command post in this sector. We moved on to Juno Beach Center in Courseulles. An excellent museum has been set up here by Canadian veterans and volunteers without government finance. The museum documents the interwar period in Canada, Canada's entry into the war and the all the contributions of Canada and her men and women from bolstering defenses in England after Dunkirk to the final push in Germany in the spring of 1945. It's definitely the best museum we've seen thus far and includes radio addresses from the period, personal stories of veterans and a host of maps, descriptions and pictures. If you decide to come over here, I highly recommend it.

We did lunch in Arromanches, which is at the center of Gold Beach where the right wing of the British landed. We dined on crepes (I know not very manly but surprisingly good and I have more appetite than pride). Mine was stuffed with ham and egg and sweet peppers: delicious. Again, the meal was washed down with cider. I could make a habit out of this. Arromanche is also where the allies built one of two artificial harbors in Normandy. The other was washed away in storms a couple of weeks after being built, but the harbor here stayed operational for five months and deposited 346,000 men, 39,000 vehicles and 110,000 tons of supplies into Normandy.

To close out the day we stopped at the Battery at Longues sur Mer where there were four 155-mm (6") guns threatening the beaches. These guns implacements were built in '44 and were of better construction than those we saw at Pointe du Hoc yesterday. The Germans had significantly improved their use of steel-reinforced concrete. Three of the four guns survived aerial and naval bombardment. The naval bombardment did silence some of the guns however as the soldiers couldn't stand the concussion of the direct hits of the extremely accurate naval gunners. One hit from the HMS Ajax was so accurate, or lucky or both, that it entered the aperture of the emplacement and apparently exploded in the breech which subsequently touched off the rest of the ammuntion to dramatic effect. This is the only gun in the battery that was destroyed.

On the way back we just happened to stop by the fortified chateau of William the Conqueror. The fortified outer walls were not significantly damaged during the war; although, the chateau itself was completely destroyed. Of course we had to snap some photos.