A Ride Along the Normandy Beaches

Having spent the day at the D-Day beaches at Normandy, I have to say that anyone who has an opportunity to visit the area should do so. Lorie and I are one generation after the war but its history is close because our parents lived through it and we heard their stories first hand. Visiting these battlefields had a big impact on us; I wonder if it would have the same impact on our kids, who are two generations removed from WWII and the history that they learned was primarily at school. No matter who you are or what you have read, it is astonishing to walk the beachheads, through the bomb-cratered ground and past the machine gun nests and try to get some tiny understanding of what so many thousands of young men experienced – on both sides of the equation – and where so many thousands more died, and to try to just for a moment understand the terror that they lived and died in. Their fear must have been overwhelming. Their bravery unequaled.

German machine gun nest

Demolished bunker

It is all protected in perpetuity now

 

Rather than ride our bike the 75 km loop that we had planned, we joined onto a group trip that had a guide who shuttled us from Bayeux the short drive to the beaches of Omaha, Utah and Juno. The wind was blowing madly again and riding the route would have been miserable. Pascal, our guide, is a French guy who had a remarkable ability to tell the history of the area, and it was really interesting to hear his presentation of the local history and from a local Frenchman.

 

Memorial to the 1st Infantry Division

Our guide said that the weather on June 6, 1944 was worse than the day we visited, May 31, 2023. And it was horrendous weather the day we were there.

 

On June 6, 1944 34,000 Allied troops landed on Omaha Beach. 2,400 died that day. Many, many additional died the following days. It isn’t clear how many German troops died but the estimate ranges from 4,000 to 9,000. The numbers are astounding.

 

We ended our visit at the American Cemetery, where 9,000 soldiers are buried. In context, 75% of the dead were repatriated to the US and buried.

Memorial at the entrance to the cemetery

Wall with the names of soldiers whose remains were never found -- there are around 3,000 names. The one with the black marker by the name was identified in 2018 by DNA when road workers found remains.

It is a good lesson to visit these places and imagine how much better we need to become.