Normandy

We took the students on a day trip to Normandy on Thursday. It was a very long day, but it was so filled with information and fantastic site visits that it was well worth the fatigue. We began the day at the cemetery for German soldiers. There are twice as many soldiers buried here as in the American cemetery, but you wouldn't guess it, since the grave markers are very minimalist and settled into the ground, with two names on each marker. It's very solemn and peaceful there, but with a dark edge. It's sometimes difficult to remember, with my American public education, that the Germans weren't just Nazis...they were also scared, 18-year-old soldiers, just like our men were.

We traveled to Saint-Mere-Eglise, which is where the Allies dropped paratroopers (think Matt Damon in Saving Private Ryan) the night before the invasion, drawing Germans away from the beaches but also creating chaos with missed drops. You can still see bullet holes in the walls of the buildings there. There's also an airborne museum there, with lots of remnants from the D-Day invasions. (I also had a sausage on a baguette at the local market. It was delicious. I'm quickly getting very tired of eating so many sandwiches...)

We ate lunch at Utah beach, one of two American landing sites during the D-Day invasions. There were few casualties there, because the dunes are low and the beach is short, allowing soldiers to reach safety and overtake the beach easily. Omaha (which we also visited, but my camera batteries were dead) was a very different story, as anyone who has seen a D-Day movie knows. 800 dead, 3000 casualties on Omaha, since high cliffs allowed the Germans easy protection of the beach, making the invading Americans easy targets. It was very hallowing to be on that beach. We followed Omaha with a visit to the American cemetery, which looks much like any other US military cemetery (Arlington), with pristine white crosses and beautiful landscaping. The cemetery overlooks the Omaha beach, which seems quite fitting. We saw Teddy Roosevelt Jr.'s grave marker, as well as the Niland brothers, which inspired the Saving Private Ryan movie. The visitor center had a really wonderful display which gave you some insight into how some of the soldiers died, earning medals, etc. It was really something.

We also visited Pointe du Hoc, which was a cliff point of invasion. Rangers had to scale 100 foot cliffs to take the German guns, which otherwise would have made the invasion of both American beaches impossible. Air bombing left many bomb craters which are still there today. The photo is me in a bomb crater. Amazing.