Saturday, November 12, 2016 ('Room With a View of the Cathedral' AirBnB, Bayeux, France)

This is our third and final day in Normandy...it will be another jam-packed day! Again, we headed out figuring we would get breakfast later. All that we could find was a McDonald's...it did not serve breakfast (really?...I thought we'd at least be able to get an egg McMuffin!) but we managed to get a cup of coffee and muffin. After being totally ignored as we stood at the counter, the young girl finally sauntered over...sheesh!

It was a very rainy day...we reached Pegasus Bridge and I sat in the car while Steve braved the rain and wind to get some pictures.

The capture of the River Orne bridge at Ranville and the bridge across the Caen Canal at BĂ©nouville is the most famous mission of the airborne division. 180 troops of the Ox and Bucks Light Infantry, commanded by Major John Howard, captured the bridges after landing in Horsa gliders only metres from their objectives.

In less than ten minutes both bridges had been captured intact. The sea borne reinforcements commanded by Brigadier Lord Lovat, preceded by his bagpiper Bill Millin, were able to cross the waterways to reinforce 6th Airborne Division on the eastern flank. Among these Green Berets, 177 French Commandos commanded by Philip Kieffer.

On June 26th 1944, the Caen Canal bridge was baptised Pegasus Bridge as a tribute to the British troops. Pegasus, the winged horse, was the emblem worn on the sleeves of the men of the airborne division. The insignia was chosen by the author Daphne du Maurier, wife of the wartime commander of British airborne forces General Sir Frederick Browning.

In 1961 the bridge acquired celebrity status due to the D-Day film, produced by Darryl Zanuck, The Longest Day.

Replaced in 1994 by a new bridge the original Pegasus Bridge is now on display in the park of the museum.


We're now on the opposite end of the bridge...


 Reads: June 6 1944 The banks of the Orne first parts of France are liberated by the Allied Forces...



Next, we set out to see the other British landing zone Sword Beach. We ended up at Lion-ser-Mer on the coast, a lovely little community...too bad the weather wasn't nicer. We parked the car and after a visit to a Visitor Centre, and a few pictures...we were on our way to Ouistreham, having to retrace our route a short distance.
Looks like a popular summer time beach...
 We arrived in Ouistreham...
 ...and found a museum...Le Grand Bunker Musee a German headquarters which was in charge of batteries covering the entrance to the river Orne and the canal. Steve had a quick look around while I waited in the car. We were running short on time so had to move on...
M7 self propelled gun recovered from the sea in 1982. It was one of four M7s fallen from a LCT near Arromanches...
The drawing (top left below) shows the position of the tanks under the water as discovered by divers...

Model showing the interior of this bunker...
Bunker exterior...
A gun position towards the back of the bunker...
We parked the car and got out for a little walk to see Sword Beach. We weren't out of the car long...just long enough to get a few pictures...
For some folks, the wind is just what they wanted. This beach is beautiful!



Traffic jam with a tractor dumping firewood and we and a bus waiting to get through...



 For the most part, we followed the coast ...
Lots of windsurfers...


Our next stop was Juno Beach. Since we didn't get a chance to go through the Juno Beach Centre yesterday...we made a quick stop to take a look.

We forgot to mention that when we were here for the Remembrance Day service yesterday we met a couple of gentleman from our area on southern Vancouver Island. One was a veteran that served in Afghanistan and Bosnia and now runs the Beaver Lake Campground near Cowichan Lake, The other fellow was from Sooke but now lives in London and his dad fought here. That was very cool!









These items were uncovered during construction of the Juno Beach Centre...






Then we were off to Pointe Du Hoc...about an hour's drive west...

In World War II, German forces occupied Pointe du Hoc and transformed the quiet spot into a fortified stronghold protecting a battery of heavy guns. On the morning of June 6, 1944, US Army Rangers scaled 90-foot cliffs to capture this heavily defended position and then held it against repeated counterattacks. Their heroic actions helped to establish an Allied foothold in France and begin the liberation of Europe.
Kids playing in a bomb crater...
Model of Pointe Du Hoc...
They use sheep to keep the grass short in this crater laden landscape,,,



At least it had stopped raining...just a little blustery...








Steve in a very deep bomb crater...





The point stood on cliffs between 85 to over 100 feet high at whose base was a very small rocky beach that offered no protection. Because the point was positioned on near impregnable cliffs, the Germans had concentrated their defenses in anticipation of a ground assault from inland. Above were heavily fortified concrete casements interlaced with tunnels, trenches, and machine-gun positions around the perimeter.
Although the 716th Infantry Division was thinly stretched along 30 miles of the shoreline, approximately 200 German troops (125 infantry and 85 artillery men) were garrisoned in or around the point.


Shell damage...

The only landing beach that's not a beautiful sandy beach...
I'm cold and I'm not going down there!







Looks like shrapnel damage...



Wow...the cratered landscape really shows what kind of hell it must have been for all involved...






Ranger Casualties...
US Army Ranger Units Sustained Heavy Losses During the Normandy Landings --
Of 225 Rangers that left the ships in the first wave to attack Pointe du Hoc, only 90 men were still able to bear arms when the relief force arrived on the morning of June 8. In the larger battle, the 2nd and 5th Ranger Battalions taken together suffered 96 killed, 183 wounded, and 32 missing during the battle for Pointe du Hoc and Omaha Beach.


We were surprised at how many RV's we were seeing considering the time of year and lousy weather. This Class A was the largest we ever saw...
Our final stop was at the American Cemetery Omaha Beach...
A beautiful clifftop path above Omaha Beach...

The names of 1,557 Americans who lost their lives in the Normandy campaign but could not be located and/or identified are inscribed on the walls of a semicircular garden at the east side of the memorial. 
This part consists of a semicircular colonnade with a loggia at each end containing maps and narratives of the military operations. At the center is a 22-foot bronze statue entitled The Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves. Facing west at the memorial, one sees in the foreground the reflecting pool, the mall with burial areas to either side and the circular chapel beyond. Behind the chapel are allegorical figures representing the United States and France. An orientation table overlooks the beach and depicts the landings at Normandy.

The Memorial faces the United States at its nearest point to the cemetery; a point between Eastport and Lubec, Maine.



This is such a beautiful cemetery...

When the bugler sounded everyone stopped what they were doing...
We were surprised how busy it was here the day after Armistice Day...



9,387 graves...




Like yesterday, it was dark by the time we got back to our BnB. It has been a very busy three days...we have seen a lot and covered a lot of territory in the short time here. Of course, more time would have been nice...there is still so much more we would liked to have seen.

After relaxing for a bit, enjoying our last evening view of the Cathedral all lit up, we walked around the corner to the little pub we discovered last night...our last night in Bayeux...



4 comments:

  1. That was a lot to take in with only 3 days. I imagine just standing in those bomb craters and other structures really brought a sense of reality to your experience versus reading about it or viewing it on TV.

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    1. It was an incredibly awesome and moving experience. There was so much more to see but not enough time.

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  2. the two of you sure 'cram alot of stuff' into such a short time...Steve must have enjoyed this part of the trip..we know how much he loves his 'war shows'..

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    1. Yes, he was in his glory! Just not enough time to go through all of the museums though....(oh darn, LOL)

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