Another rare Peter post on the blog. This last weekend, I took a trip to Normandy with a few buddies to get a good look at the D-Day invasion beaches and senselessly argue about obscure military facts that none of us probably knew the answer to anyway. I left Caroline at home to hang out with her girlfriends and so that I could increase the nerdiness factor of this trip by about 1249%. Just a disclaimer, if you're main interests are not hardened concrete bunkers, military hardware, and random historical facts about WWII, feel free to skip this post.
Our first visit on Saturday morning was to Juno beach. One of my travel companions, Sean, is Canadian and also a former member of the Canadian military, so we were obliged to visit the beach where the Canadians landed at D-Day and since it was the one closest to Paris, we headed there first. Below is a map of the 5 D-Day landing beaches so one can get a sense of where we were visiting. While all the beaches contained mix nationalities to some degree, the breakdown is as follows: Gold and Sword beaches were the landing sites for British forces and also some of the "Free French" battalions. Juno was the landing sites for the Canadian military, while Omaha and Utah beaches were the landing sites for American forces. To get a sense of the size of the landing beaches, the drive between the Sword, the further beach to the east, and Utah, the furthest beach to the west was probably around 60-70 miles. To look at it another way, the total number of troops that landed on D-Day (June 6, 1944), was around 150,000, so the size and scope of the operation was immense.
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| Map of Normandy and the D-Day beaches |
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| Photo of the D-Day landing force unloading supplies after the beach had been taken |
At Juno beach, we were fairly surprised to see how little evidence remained of the invasion. Actually, there was a surprising amount of development on the beach (unfortunately I don't have photos). It seems odd that the beach was not protected and that it seemed to be use by the public just as any other beach would be. However, we did find the remains of a few concrete bunkers on the beach and there is a Canadian museum on the site that allows visitors to learn more about the Canadian military's role in the war. However, Sean was a little peeved that the gift shop had a large inventory of dreamcatchers and maple syrup.
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| A look out on Juno Beach. No, the tractor wasn't part of the invasion force... |
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| A monument at Juno beach. This indicates that Juno Beach was the landing site for Charles De Gaulle when he returned to France on June 14, 1944. |
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The flags of the nations that participated in the D-Day invasion. Free forces from many of the countries in Nazi occupied Europe participated in the invasion.
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| The crest for Sean's unit, the Glengarry Fencibles. While they didn't land on D-Day, they arrived through Juno beach and continued to fight through the European theater |
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| Sean standing next to his unit crest. |
During the invasion, the Canadians were able to clear the beach of German forces in less than two hours. However, over 340 Canadians were killed during the battle. During the weekend, we also visited the Canadian cemetery near the town of Beny-sur-mer. We were the only people there, but it was a beautiful place and a great memorial to those who lost their lives for Canada. It was clear that the local French population was still grateful as well - the cemetery was extremely well maintained and overflowed with rose bushes and other flowers.
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| The Canadian and French flags flying above the Beny-sur-mer cemetery |
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| Wild poppies growing outside the Canadian cemetery. Poppies are the symbol of remembrance for many of the former British Commonwealth States. |
After our morning at Juno Beach, we headed over to Omaha Beach. Omaha was the bloodiest beach of the invasion and once we got there, we could see why. Instead of a flat narrow beach like Juno, Omaha was overlooked by high cliffs and soldiers would have had a lot of ground to cover while under fire from German machine guns and Artillery. Over 1,200 Americans were killed on D-Day while trying to secure Omaha Beach. Now, atop the bluffs there is a large American cemetery that contains the remains of over 9,000 Americans that fought in Europe during WWII. It is a moving site and we were fortunate enough to be there for an interesting memorial ceremony where a number of local residents laid a wreath at the memorial while the star spangled banner was played over the audio system. For all the jokes we make about relations between the US and France, it is clear that our histories are heavily intertwined and that the two countries share a unique bond that comes from our experiences together in both WWI and WWII. 
Look out for a part II to this posting...
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