The D-Day Beaches, Part 1

 THE D-DAY BEACHES, PART 1

October 24

Hang with me -- this was a pretty darn long day too!

Our day began early in Caen and quickly shifted first to Bayeux and then to the landing beaches. After a quick breakfast at the BW Royal in Caen we were taken by our taxi, which the BW manager had booked for us, to Enterprise Rent-a-Car near the Gare Caen, where we drove away in a Camry-sized Renault Megane. It began as an adventure: There was road construction which left closed streets, our car navigation system ne parlait Anglais, and fear had been struck in my heart by videos I had watched about driving in France (particularly in rural areas, where we would typically be driving, where drivers must yield to cars approaching from the right, which can literally appear out of nowhere!🤯 We did buy the full liability insurance!). After driving the wrong way on a 1-way street (I think; I was never quite sure), driving in a lane restricted to buses [fervently hoping Google Translate could help me with "Sorry, Mr. Officer, but I'm not from around here!"], and getting lost for a mile or so, we adroitly shifted to Google Maps on my phone (definitely not Susan's, which some Lucky Pierre apparently had back in Paris! 🗮), which did parle Anglais, and made our way down the 4-lane highway the 35 minutes to the Hotel de Brunville in Bayeux, where we'd stay for 2 nights ... and where I'd meet my tour guide for the D-Day sites.

We successfully navigated a handful of the popular roundabouts and made it to our old but attractive hotel smack in the middle of downtown Bayeux* only 5 minutes late for my meeting with Ed Robinson of Normandy Battlefield Tours, my highly recommended guide for the next 2 days. The hotel was cordial and accommodating, and though they obviously didn't let us check in at 9:05 AM, stored our bags until it was check-in time, and helped Susan find a place for breakfast and exploration, then oriented her to the neighborhood.  Ed was patiently waiting for me, made sure I fed the parking fee machine (no free hotel parking in cities in France; nearby pay lots that weren't exorbitant instead), roll our bags to the hotel, and get Susan situated.  Away Ed and I went in his minivan.

Our first stop was Ste. Mere Eglise, where about 30 of the 1,000 American paratroopers in the 82nd Airborne had been blown off course and inadvertently landed in the middle of town on June 5, 1944, the night before D-Day, and after a fierce fight liberated the city.  We saw the church where Pvt. John Steele (played in The Longest Day by Red Buttons) drifted into and was stranded on the steeple where he was later wounded, today acknowledged by a dummy hanging by his parachute from the steeple. Ed, who had studied forensics in college, showed me several places on the church and other buildings around the town with bullet holes. One of the moving parts of the story of Ste. Mere Eglise is that they adopted American paratroopers as more or less their patron saints to the extent that in some of the beautiful stained glass windows in the church Pvt. Steele was hung up on there are images of parachutes along with Mother Mary and St. Michael. Here are some images from the town:

Church at Ste. Mere Eglise

Interior of church sanctuary

Stained glass window of St. Michael - note parachutes on top

Our next stop was at Utah Beach, the westernmost of the 2 U.S. landing beaches, where 23,000 American troops landed on D-Day (suffering only 197 casualties).  Although Utah Beach wasn't as heavily defended, there were German bunkers with artillery and observers on and near the beach, as the photos below will show.  Walking onto the beach there, which is quite beautiful and tranquil today, was quite surreal. 

German bunker about 500 yds. from Utah Bch.

Inside bunker

A 2nd German bunker nearer beach

A peaceful stroll on Utah Beach

Utah Beach -- a bit more laid back 80 yrs. later

  

Peace memorial at Grandcamp-Maisy
between Utah & Omaha beaches

Our final stop was at Pointe du Hoc, a point on a 110' cliff that contained several German artillery and machine gun emplacements and observation posts in a strategic position to defend Omaha Beach and was thought to house at least 4 giant pieces of artillery. 225 U.S. Rangers under the command of Col. James Rudder (later promoted to Gen. and served as President of Texas A&M) used ladders to scale the almost vertical cliffs, kill or capture the troops there, and destroy the big guns. After suffering over 200 casualties the Rangers seized the position, killing over 50 Germans and capturing 40 more. They found that the big artillery pieces that motivated the raid had not yet been moved to Pointe, but a small party of Rangers located them nearby and destroyed them.

Around the bunkers there is vivid evidence of the Allied air and naval bombardment with scores of bomb and shell craters and some destroyed bunkers. Unfortunately the bombing and shelling preceding the invasion, which had to have sounded and looked like the End of Times, did relatively little damage to German positions. Although British and US Naval shelling after the troops began to land helped enormously to pave the way for troops, especially on Omaha Beach, to fight their way off the beaches, the German still had formidable defense on some beaches, especially Omaha (American) and Juno (Canadian).

Photos of Pointe du Hoc:

Cliffs of Pointe du Hoc

  

Bomb/shell craters at the Pointe

The Pointe 80 yrs. later

Outside a bunker facing beach

   

Inside view of bunker

Another bunker at the Pointe

A concluding observation on Day 1 of my tour of the Allied landing beaches: The roughly 50,000 Germans on the portion of the Atlantic Wall that included the 50 miles of beaches where the Allies would land had no idea when or where the landing would take place. It's almost impossible today to think that Operation Overlord had been kept such a tight secret and that the Germans hadn't a clue. Hitler, who considered himself a military genius, thought the invasion would take place in the Pas de Calais, the shortest distance across the Channel from England and 200 miles from Gold, the easternmost landing beach in Normandy. Rommel, the feared commanding German officer, was so certain that the weather would keep the Allies away from Normandy for the week of June 6 that he had traveled to Berlin to celebrate his wife's birthday. Imagine then the shock, dismay, and fear of the German observers along the Normandy coast at 6:30 in the morning on June 6, 1944, as they looked out through the fog and slowly began to be able to make out the hazy images of an armada of 7,000 ships and landing craft that were bringing about 160,000 troops to their front door!  What an "Ohhh, hell!!!" moment that had to have been! Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself ....

Meanwhile back at the ranch ... as Ed and I had explored the landing beaches, Susan had most of the day to explore beautiful, historic Bayeux.  After the staff at the Brunville supplied her with some suggestions and directions, she set off to visit a French lace shop, an interest because early in our marriage she did French sewing for our daughter and others' clothes. She also visited Notre Dame (the one in Bayeux, which is as large as the one in Paris, and which was consecrated in 1077 during the reign of William the Conqueror).  There she lit candles for her mom, my mom, and her aunt. She found the cathedral impressive and moving. Later she returned to the hotel and caught up on some of the sleep we missed on the flight over. 

River Aure flowing through Bayeux

   

Downtown Bayeux

 

I returned from my journey with Ed in time to squeeze in a visit to the Tapestry Museum (a/k/a La Tapisserie de Bayeux) to see the 230' long and nearly 2' tall tapestry that according to legend was made by the ladies-in-waiting of William the Conqueror's wife, Queen Matilda, and tells the story of the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 (from the Norman viewpoint, of course). Fortunately visitors can get an audioguide, which tells the stories depicted in the 58 panels in their own language. This I did.  Now that was history! Upon my return I realized I had atypically failed as an Eagle Scout and wasn't prepared, i.e., hadn't made a reservation. (Hey, it was a weeknight in town of 13,000!) We found an attractive option, walked the 10 minutes there ... only to discover it wasn't open that night, but found another appealing alternative nearby. After a nice seafood dinner (Bayeux is 10 miles from the coast) and some more tasty French wine, we called it a night and tried to make another dent in the sleep deficit from our flight over. It had been much tougher in 1944!

Exhibit at  Bayeux Tapestry Museum

*Bayeux is a beautiful, historic town of about 13,000 whose origins go back to the 1st Century and conquests by the Romans and later the Vikings. Its "modern" history goes back to the 11th Century. Bayeux was the first city in Normandy liberated by the Allies after D-Day, and it was spared the bombing that preceded the invasion (or debarquement, as the French prefer, which is landing in English). The historic buildings, e.g., their Notre Dame Cathedral were preserved.  The Allies, as intended in their planning, used Bayeux as the headquarters of operation as they drove from the landing beaches into France and onward to Germany.