But really it was the battle sites of Normandy that we'd come to see. Shame the weather wasn't playing ball..
Actually, the weather had been nowhere near as good as we'd been promised ;) I'm guessing the rest of Europe got all our heat because we were at least 10 degrees cooler than normal which lead to way more hoody wearing, especially in the mornings and when on the coast, than we'd planned. But in Normandy, it. just. plain. pooored.
Nevertheless, to the Caen Memorial Museum we went first, where the exhibits recounted the terrible history of the 20th century, from the origins of the Second World War to the end of the Cold War. It was a really, really excellent museum - big - but well laid out and very well structured, and all of us learned a lot about even the stuff we thought we knew, and a whole lot more stuff we definitely didn't.
From Caen we travelled towards Gold Beach and the Arromanches 360 circular cinema. At Arromanches an artificial 'Mulberry' harbour was installed to land vehicles and supplies very rapidly by using quays protected by a line of concrete caissons, until such a time as continental ports were captured. In 100 days, 220,000 soldiers, 530,000 tonnes of supplies and 39,000 vehicles were landed at "Port Winston".
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| You can still see some of the bits of harbour in the bay |
From Arromanches-les-Bains we travelled to the German Gun Battery of Longues-sur-Mer. During a break in the clouds we dashed out to see the "extraordinary panoramic view over the Landing beaches", except the break didn't last long enough and we ended up sodden.
Longues-sur-Mer is the only battery to be listed as a Historic Monument, and was part of the German's Atlantic Wall which we'd learned about in Brittany. It includes a firing command post and four reinforced concrete pillboxes each housing a long range artillery piece of 150mm. Situated in the area between Gold and Omaha beaches at the top of a cliff overlooking the Channel, it played a strategic role during the Landing of the Allied forces on June 6th 1944. Subjected to intense bombing by air and then by sea which prevented it from fully taking part in the action on D-Day, it was taken by British troops on June 7th.
Our next stop was La Pointe du Hoc, which was a strategic point in the German defences on the Normandy coast. The mission to take it was given to the 2nd Ranger battalion who reached the top in just a few minutes, despite the slope being very slippery, the climbing ropes made heavy by seawater, and intense fire from the defenders. In a lunar landscape full of massively deep craters, the fierce battle which ensued was even bloodier than the climb. And a big surprise awaited the Rangers: they found that huge wooden beams had been placed in the stations instead of artillery guns!
Today the site still bears the traces of the German artillery battery as well as the deep scars from the fierce fighting that took place here on June 6th and 7th 1944, and cost the lives of 135 Rangers.
I have to admit we almost didn't make it round to the Pointe. Once you've gotten soaking wet, then sit in a warm car for 20 minutes, then get back out again into the pouring rain, all motivation to walk around a headland has left you. But we pulled up our big boy breeks, figured this was the only time we'd ever actually come here, and got on our way.
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You can't appreciate the depth of these craters from
these photos |
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No insult to whoever designed this memorial,
but it is an incredibly phallic one... |
Final stop of the day on our way back to Carentan where we were staying, was the German Military Cemetery of La Cambe.
Covering 10.5 hectares, this is one of six German military cemeteries created in the aftermath of the Battle of Normandy in the Second World War. Almost 21,300 German soldiers are buried here. A permanent exhibition covers the themes of humankind in times of war, the German graves, the civil population, the meaning of commemorations and the duty of remembrance. By presenting examples of the lives of specific soldiers and families, the complexities and tragedies of the war are brought out.
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The 1,120 Acer Globosum maple trees planted in the Peace
Garden act as so many symbols of peace and reconciliation |
And then it was most definitely time to go home for a hot shower.
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