Our original trip was to follow Easy Company on their war tour. If you've seen Band of Brothers on HBO, you may be familiar with the Brecourt Manor Assault that Dick Winters' team undertook to take out the heavy machine guns there. This morning and the drive to approach this location was the first I learned about the impact and heavy toll that the hedge rows had on the war effort. Apparently I wasn't paying close attention during my Band of Brothers watching. The hedge rows along the road were (and are) so thick and impenetrable that you couldn't drive or fire through them. I couldn't get a good photo of it no matter how hard I tried. It was just impossible to fully capture the density. When we got out at Brecourt Manor the other bit that struck me was just how this felt and looked and smelled like a field in Kansas. Reminded me of when I ran cross country for a year in high school, and we'd practice in a section outside of town. It made me sad for the families that were living their quiet, rural lifestyle before the Germans invaded and were suddenly in the middle of all of this....
Down at the beach I learned a few more facts. Utah Beach is much flatter than Omaha Beach. It's also quite marshy. So the Germans flooded a lot of the farmland to defend their positions, as they were able to route all in/out to a few (four, I believe) causeways from the beach inland. Because of this, the use of paratroopers was heavy at the Utah Beach landings, and they were sent behind the marsh in addition to the troops unloading onto the beach and approaching inland.
There were not as many visual markers at Utah Beach for the troops to orient themselves. There was a red roofed building and a windmill. I don't recall if it was nerves, weather, currents or just navigating in the dark that got them off course, but the first landing group was about 1 mile further south than they intended to be. Led by Teddy Roosevelt, Jr, who was continually described as too old and too infirm to be leading his men into battle but nonetheless was, famously started the war from there. The German bunker at that spot was ill defended with a popular but very young leader who quite quickly surrendered knowing his limited command was overwhelmed.
Paratroopers from the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions were dropped overnight in the hours before D-Day inland in order to secure the four causeways. Many of the paratroopers were killed before they landed; many more drowned in the flooded marshes. And those who did land were often in disorganized units as their landings weren't precise due to the planes dropping them early or a variety of other reasons. In the town of Saint-Mere-Eglise we toured the Paratrooper Museum, which was very interesting. We also saw the famous church in the town square where paratroopers landed, including one whose chute tangled on the building and trapped him. I learned during our tour that the surprise of the night landings was thwarted because the house next to the town square caught on fire that night - lighting up the town and the night sky - and bringing townspeople and German soldiers to the square in a bucket brigade to put it out. Making the paratroopers falling from the sky easy targets.
On the 25th anniversary of D-Day these stain glass windows in the church were dedicated to St. Michael, the patron saint of paratroopers, and have the shields of the 81st and 102nd. I also just love how a tiny church in a tiny town is so amazingly ornate and beautiful. Normandy being known for its apples, I had to try some cider during our lunch at the local pub. It wasn't impressive. Nor were our sandwiches. We ordered the well known French grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, but like anything....it depends where you order it. And the small town dive wasn't the place to get good food. At least it was cheap.
These markers, "Borne," make up the Liberty Road, or the route of the Allied Forces from D-Day. This is the first one in Sainte-Mere-Eglise, and they end in Bastogne in Belgium.
Back in Bayeux we walked the outside of their World War II Museum to see the tanks. A friendly old man walked by and was very insistent that William see that the hedge row surrounding the tanks had a break and that he was welcome to get up close to it! William needed very little translation for that invitation! This was a Churchill Crocodile, a tank that had been modified with a flamethrower mounted on it.
In the park adjacent was a memorial to slain journalists. It was a very peaceful and beautiful memorial. It's ridiculous how many stones filled with names fill that walkway....
And then across the street is the Commonwealth Cemetery, which had dead from many countries, including Germany, buried there. We also saw several tombstones pushed together with multiple names which I presume were crews that were killed together that could not be separately identified.
For dinner than night we enjoyed an upscale experience at Le Pommier, where I was able to get a reservation via an English language translated website. We spoke a combination of French and English when ordering. It was our most delicious meal and my creme brulee dessert was probably the best creme brulee I had ever eaten. William loved his hot chocolate, and I think he looks so old here!
