On the road again!: April 26, D-Day Beaches

Garden at the Guesthouse

Today we had another great breakfast at La Maison de Victoire which, by the way, is one of the three places recommended by Rick Steves. And, we recommend it, too. A couple from Belgium toured the D-Day sites the day before and gave us a few tips.

Gold, Juno and Gold Beaches

We dedicated our day to the beaches of Normandy, both for the battles of D-Day, June 6, 1944, and to the beaches themselves which are extremely wide with huge tides. We drove about 60-70 miles. It was a beautiful day - mostly sunny and in the 60s. As it was also a Sunday, there were a lot of people visiting the area.

We started at La Pointe de Hoc. It gives a panorama of Omaha Beach where the American Rangers went ashore and up the 100 foot high cliffs. It was also where the Germans were the most fortified and, of the 200 Rangers who climbed the cliffs, only 90 survived that first ay.

Operation Overlord was the largest amphibious assault in history.

The steep cliffs of Omaha Beach

Artillery from ships started bombardment before the soldiers went ashore. The huge holes made by those shells are still evident. These took out some German artillery and bunkers, but not all of them and German resistance was fierce.

In all, there were five landing beaches. On the first day, the Allies landed 156,000 troops. The Americans landed 23,000 on Utah Beach and 34,000 on Omaha Beach. Another 15,000 troops landed by air. The British and Canadians landed 83,000 on Gold Beach, 21,000 on Juno Beach and 28,000 on Sword Beach. They also landed 8,000 airborne troops.

The first day, the Allies got a small foothold in Europe. They had hoped to liberate several towns on the first day, but the German resistance was too stiff and the terrain too difficult.

Craters from artillery

From Pointe de Hoc, we drove through the towns of Port-en-Bessin, Arromanches and Asnelles working our way from Omaha Beach to Gold Beach which is one beach where the British and Canadians went ashore.

En route, between Omaha and Gold Beaches we ate at a cafe in a small village. The larger towns were crowded and it would have been hard to find a quiet restaurant or parking spot. We had a very good lunch of salmon galette (B) and fish sandwich (M).

Even though we visited these beaches over 40 years ago with Nick and Jecca, we were still amazed at the extent and breadth of the D-Day line of amphibious landings - over 100 kilometers of beaches. The sheer logistics are staggering.

We stopped at Gold Beach and walked at very low tide. We met a man who was digging for small shellfish which he called "cocques" or something like that.

At Gold Beach are many remnants of the artificial harbors the Allies built, called mulberries, both on the beach and in the water. (2 artificial harbors were eventually built - quite a marvel of engineering) These were key in landing troops over the next months to begin the liberation of Europe.

It is sobering to visit these battlefields and emotional to see the visible remains of the war which the French have left in place in memoriam. We saw many tourists reverentially visiting. We think they were mostly French and American, but also saw several Italian groups.