I woke up early this morning and went for a short run to help me get acclimated to the place and time - very refreshing in the cool of the morning. We had a great breakfast with pretty much anything you could want including brie and camembert, fresh eggs and boiling water in which to cook them, and a variety of meats, fruit, cereal, etc. The coffee was strong and aromatic and there was steamed cream so you can whiten your coffee without cooling it off.
We headed off to Pointe du Hoc at 8:30, but had to stop back at the museum in Caen to pick up another guide for today and tomorrow. Helen specializes in Normandy and is adding extra color to our tour of the landing beaches and the Battle of Normandy. Pointe du Hoc is a staggering location for a battle. The Germans considered it impregnable to an amphibious assault and I can see why. The US Rangers who attacked this position had to scale 90' high sheer cliffs and attack a similar sized defense force at the top who were secured in bunkers with machine gun nests. Mission impossible if ever there was one. To make matters worse, the Rangers ended up at the wrong point at dawn and lost the element of surprise as they had to traverse the bay against the current and consumed almost an hour of precious time before they could even begin their assault. As they began to scale the cliffs, the enemy would hurl down grenades and cut or dislodge their grappling lines. Despite the odds, however, they did manage to take the position and hold out for two days until they were relieved by the infantry coming up from the beaches on June 8th. While the 155-mm guns at this location were not there when the Rangers gained the top, they surreptitiously discovered them some distance back in the hedgerows and disabled them. The guns never came into play on D-Day, but the position cost the Rangers 135 men of from the original 225 that attacked.
Later in the morning we hopped the bus over to the Cemetery and Memorial off of Omaha beach. Over 9000 servicemen and women are buried here in addition to a memorial for 1,557 missing in action. Not all are from D-Day or even WWII. For example, Quentin Roosevelt, younger brother of Theodore Roosevelt Jr., is buried here. He was a pilot who got shot down in WWI and was re-interred here at the request of the Roosevelt family so that he could be laid to rest next to his brother. Teddy Roosevelt (no, not the President, but his cousin) was a Brigadier General and the only one to come ashore with his troops on D-Day. He died of a heart-attack in July of '44 and received the Medal of Honor for his inspiration of the troops on D-Day. Earle Fries, the veteran who put this tour together, paid his respects to a friend lost in the war and placed a single red rose on his headstone. The curators of the memorial were very gracious to Earle and had him sign a special guest book for veterans and presented him with large packet of information plus two memorial flags. We are very honored and blessed to be travelling on this tour with Earle. It seems more authentic and helps us travel back to that era and have some appreciation of the gravity of the situation. Earle is also helping us on the spiritual aspect of this journey as he lead a devotional this morning comparing Joshua's invasion of the promised land to Eisenhower's invasion of Normandy. Both had to exhort their troops to be strong and courageous. However, Ike had to do it knowing that many of those young faces staring back at him would not survive the next day. We too have our battles to fight and need to be strong and courageous in the Lord, even if our battles pale in comparison to the intensity, ferocity, and brutality of D-Day.
We had a late lunch on Omaha beach. I had "Special Rapido" which is chopped meat with gravy - not too shabby. I also enjoyed some of the local apple cider; it's as refreshing as the morning run and not near as hard on the body. Looking at the beach at low tide, it's impossible to fathom men running in full packs across several hundred yards of this wide-open (read no cover) beach before hitting shale and then some marsh just to get to the cliffs where they get to take on machine gun nests to get to the top. A C-130 buzzed the beach today which added a brief adrenaline rush but no where near the same as having machine guns, mortars and 155-mm guns all vieing for their pound of flesh.
We ended the day at the Airborne Museum in Sainte-Mere Eglise. This was a critical D-Day objective of the 82nd Airborne. If you remember the movie, "the Longest Day", this is where John Steele got hung up on the church steeple in his parachute and spent most of the day playing possum. Inside the museum is a C-47 Dakota that carried the airborne troops and towed the gliders used in the pre-dawn assault on June 6, 1944. Much of the museum is dedicated to the people of Saint-Mere Eglise and the special relationship they have with the American Airborne. As the first town liberated in France, they have a deep respect and admiration for those boys who came and sacrificed for someone they never knew. But the French people paid a terrible price as their town was largely destroyed and many of their people risked and lost their lives during the battle.
We headed off to Pointe du Hoc at 8:30, but had to stop back at the museum in Caen to pick up another guide for today and tomorrow. Helen specializes in Normandy and is adding extra color to our tour of the landing beaches and the Battle of Normandy. Pointe du Hoc is a staggering location for a battle. The Germans considered it impregnable to an amphibious assault and I can see why. The US Rangers who attacked this position had to scale 90' high sheer cliffs and attack a similar sized defense force at the top who were secured in bunkers with machine gun nests. Mission impossible if ever there was one. To make matters worse, the Rangers ended up at the wrong point at dawn and lost the element of surprise as they had to traverse the bay against the current and consumed almost an hour of precious time before they could even begin their assault. As they began to scale the cliffs, the enemy would hurl down grenades and cut or dislodge their grappling lines. Despite the odds, however, they did manage to take the position and hold out for two days until they were relieved by the infantry coming up from the beaches on June 8th. While the 155-mm guns at this location were not there when the Rangers gained the top, they surreptitiously discovered them some distance back in the hedgerows and disabled them. The guns never came into play on D-Day, but the position cost the Rangers 135 men of from the original 225 that attacked.
Later in the morning we hopped the bus over to the Cemetery and Memorial off of Omaha beach. Over 9000 servicemen and women are buried here in addition to a memorial for 1,557 missing in action. Not all are from D-Day or even WWII. For example, Quentin Roosevelt, younger brother of Theodore Roosevelt Jr., is buried here. He was a pilot who got shot down in WWI and was re-interred here at the request of the Roosevelt family so that he could be laid to rest next to his brother. Teddy Roosevelt (no, not the President, but his cousin) was a Brigadier General and the only one to come ashore with his troops on D-Day. He died of a heart-attack in July of '44 and received the Medal of Honor for his inspiration of the troops on D-Day. Earle Fries, the veteran who put this tour together, paid his respects to a friend lost in the war and placed a single red rose on his headstone. The curators of the memorial were very gracious to Earle and had him sign a special guest book for veterans and presented him with large packet of information plus two memorial flags. We are very honored and blessed to be travelling on this tour with Earle. It seems more authentic and helps us travel back to that era and have some appreciation of the gravity of the situation. Earle is also helping us on the spiritual aspect of this journey as he lead a devotional this morning comparing Joshua's invasion of the promised land to Eisenhower's invasion of Normandy. Both had to exhort their troops to be strong and courageous. However, Ike had to do it knowing that many of those young faces staring back at him would not survive the next day. We too have our battles to fight and need to be strong and courageous in the Lord, even if our battles pale in comparison to the intensity, ferocity, and brutality of D-Day.
We had a late lunch on Omaha beach. I had "Special Rapido" which is chopped meat with gravy - not too shabby. I also enjoyed some of the local apple cider; it's as refreshing as the morning run and not near as hard on the body. Looking at the beach at low tide, it's impossible to fathom men running in full packs across several hundred yards of this wide-open (read no cover) beach before hitting shale and then some marsh just to get to the cliffs where they get to take on machine gun nests to get to the top. A C-130 buzzed the beach today which added a brief adrenaline rush but no where near the same as having machine guns, mortars and 155-mm guns all vieing for their pound of flesh.
We ended the day at the Airborne Museum in Sainte-Mere Eglise. This was a critical D-Day objective of the 82nd Airborne. If you remember the movie, "the Longest Day", this is where John Steele got hung up on the church steeple in his parachute and spent most of the day playing possum. Inside the museum is a C-47 Dakota that carried the airborne troops and towed the gliders used in the pre-dawn assault on June 6, 1944. Much of the museum is dedicated to the people of Saint-Mere Eglise and the special relationship they have with the American Airborne. As the first town liberated in France, they have a deep respect and admiration for those boys who came and sacrificed for someone they never knew. But the French people paid a terrible price as their town was largely destroyed and many of their people risked and lost their lives during the battle.
Wonderful pictures!
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