Visiting Normandy

Normandy holds a special place in the hearts of many French. As the landing zone for the Allies, D-Day was the beginning of the end for the Nazis. Because this was for most of us the first time we’ve ever been in France we jumped on the trip and bought tickets (expensive =/ )two weeks back. The train ride took 2 hours and for the most part all of us slept. When we got off, the first thing we all did was buy breakfast. I got a pain au chocolat (chocolate croissant) which as always was delicious =) After our quick breakfast, we hopped on to the tram and then took a bus to the Caen Memorial Museum.

 

For about almost two hours, we went through the museum looking at artifacts and pictures preserved from the war. Strangely enough, all the information was written in French in big blocks of letters and English in smaller ones. I had expected the reverse since so many Americans and Brits travel there.

 

We had to rush through the museum because we had a 12 o’clock screening of this film documenting WWII. It was one of those typical educational films on D-Day with computer graphics and all. One thing that did surprise me was the good amount of footage of the actual landings that was shown. I got to give props to the guys who filmed it during the most massive invasion of all time. Once the film ended we grabbed a quick lunch before heading to the meaty part of our visit: A five hour tour of the American and British landing zones along with the American cemetery.

 

The first stop we went to was Point du Hoc which was an invasion point for American forces. The mission was for them to parachute in and take out the artillery and guns on top of this cliff. But when they arrived, there were no guns, only bunkers. I’m not sure why this happened partly because our guide’s English was a bit rusty. Every time she said beach or Obama it came out “b*tch” and “Hobama” lol.

 

The cool thing about Point du Hoc was that there were HUGE craters. One of them were at least 30 feet deep! They were so deep and wide, I had trouble with pictures showing the correct depth of the craters. After that, we went to Omaha Beach or “Bloody Omaha”. Regrettably there wasn’t much to see as not much remained from WWII. In fact, it was kind of sad and weird to see little kids and families playing and swimming in the ocean. A spot that 60 years ago, thousands of Americans bled in. There was however a particular stone monument that caught my eye and reminded me of how under appreciated our troops are. On the monument, were the words, ” 1st Infantry Division: No mission too difficult. No sacrifice too great. Duty first. Forced Omaha Beach At Dawn 6 June”.

 

This monument reminded me of how lucky and privileged we are to be born in a country where freedom and equality is a right when 60 years ago, tens of thousands of American marines and their allies had to fight to defend freedom and equality in their country as well as others.

 

The amount of selflessness and duty to one’s country really showed when we stopped next at the Normandy American Cemetery. The Normandy American Cemetery is located on a vast cliff overlooking the ocean. The soil it is on, is considered American soil as the French gratefully gave it to the United States after the war.  

 

The entrance to the museum was very beautiful, a landscape of colorful flowers and green grass. Upon entering the cemetery, all visitors had to pass through an obelisk shaped wall with a mound of grass and a tall oak tree in the middle. This wall, was dedicated to all the Americans whose bodies were lost due to the earth. Our guide pointed out to us a couple names out of the thousands that had rose petals, those she said were the lucky ones whose bodies were found. For the rest who weren’t as so fortunate, the wall served as a reminder of their sacrifice and the only consolation to their surviving families. Walking past the walls, we were greeted to a view of a statue reaching for the sky and two olive trees. To the left of the statue was a building that had 3 murals of the battles America and her allies fought during the war. To the right was another building similar to the left but with one mural covering Operational Overlord (the Normandy Campaign). The murals were amazing to look at and illustrates how planning the logistics for the war must have taken the Allied commander an enormous amount of time and a bit of luck to make everything work.

 

9,387.

 

That was the number of American graves that every visitor to the cemetery saw once they walked past the metal statue. Like Arlington Cemetery, each of the white marble crosses or star of Davids were arranged in neat patterns going hundreds of feet back.

 

Among these graves, four of them stood out. Three of them belonged to the Niland brothers, and the other belonged to a Theodore Roosevelt Jr. Why did these graves stand out? Well Steven Spielberg’s movie Saving Private Ryan was based on the Niland brothers and Major General Theodore Roosevelt Jr was the son of President Roosevelt, participated in both World Wars and received the Medal of Honor.

 

Towards the back of the cemetery was also a chapel that was very elegant and had some very beautiful engravings dedicated to the fallen soldiers. I am so glad to that we got to go to the American Cemetery. It was easily the best and most beautiful part of my trip; especially since it is so humbling to see the sacrifices these men made to ensure our country and the rest of Europe would remain a free society. 

 

Afterwards, we quickly made a stop to Gold beach (where the British landed) and saw these floating man made cement blocks (used to create the only artificial port in France). 

 

My trip to Normandy was definitely worth the 100 something Euros even if I had to wake up super early in the morning. If anyone ever visits France I highly recommend making a trip over there. You’ll be treated to a spectacular view of the ocean, and a humbling view of the graves.