OK, Kathy and I went on different tours today. That is unusual, but I understand. She has no interest in the acts of war; she is more interested in what drives the events of history and their results. The fact that we were on different tours did not mean we did not have a similar experience.
Have you ever watched children’s cartoons where some character takes off in a hurry, leaving everybody else in their dust, accompanied with the sound ‘Ptoooooom‘? Well, in our family I have a reputation of taking off like that. However, I am not the master at this! Apparently Kathy’s guide took off like that, raising comments from everyone there. She was racing them up and down cobblestone streets and some of them were using canes!! It wasn’t my guide , but an 80 year old whom we met the previous night. When the bus stopped, he got off and all we saw was the cloud of dust as he zipped to the site, museum and two or three side jaunts, leaving his wife back with the rest of us stragglers!
While I am not a great fan of war and all the battle details, after visiting the D-Day sites in France a few thoughts came to mind.
- There will never be such battle again. It is totally outdated and surpassed by the new technology.
- The Brits and Canuks looked like they got the easy beach, but they suffered heavily while building a huge breakwater and floating dock system that was absolutely essential to winning the battle of Normandy leading the fall of the Third Reich.
- The US got the real shit detail with high hills, late support and fake targets.
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| Gun emplacement point and cliffs the Rangers climbed, under fire! |
On this last it one detail I will report the info. An important gun emplacement that commanded the whole invasion area with many big artillery (155mm) needed to be taken out for sucess. In april the place was bombed heavily, but intelligence flights still reported the guns in place. So, American rangers trained on the Isle of Wight, where the cliffs are the same, so they could climb up and take out the guns. Well all kinds of stuff went wrong that day, but 125 or so of the 225 rangers who landed on the beach made it to the top, fought to control the site under heavy fire only to discover the cannons on the intelligence pictures were LOGS!! The cannon had been moved. They found them about a mile inland and destroyed them. The remaining 90 were rescued by the 1st Airborne after three days of continuous fighting.
The other thing on this trip that was, of course quite a site was the cemetery. Nearly 10,000 US soldiers are buried and memorialized in a sweeping, well manicured site that includes a special garden for the missing. This is the largest site in Europe for US soldiers. I was left with the notion that the allies have sites all over, but that the US decided to have one site. In 1947 the families were offered the option of burial here or repatriation. Just beautiful and terrifying.
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| One of dozens of bomb pits at the gun emplacement. |
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| Cemetery entrance (lined with manicured Live Oaks |
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| Only half the grave sites, rest in the distance |
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| Front |
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| No words needed |
Funny...I think that same split is how Q and I would have done it: he would have gone to Normandy and I would have gone to Rouen. Spooky.
ReplyDeleteGorgeous photos, and quietly appropriate given today's solemn anniversary.
ReplyDeleteYour description reminded my of our visit there in 1963. That was the only place in France where the French were welcoming to we Americans. They remembered what we did and I guess they still do.
ReplyDeleteSomeone, a Madisonian, told me recently...I know who.. a woman whose husband is Eastern European professor emeritus at UW and spent every summer doing research in Europe. She said that there is a renowned scholar from Israel whom they (prof and wife) in Copenhagen this summer...on professional trip..who said that Churchill was a dunce. If he just would have gone into a naval battle with the Germany, there would be no reason for the rest of the story. GB's navy was small, but Germany's, smaller. Just an aside. Actually, I heard this story in the women's locker room at U.W. Sports Medicine Fitness Center. The woman is a friend of mine. Trust her as a source don't know a thing about the Israeli.☺
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