Oct 18 – Le Havre, France And Normandy Memorials

The ship crossed the English Channel during the night, and we were docked in Le Havre, France by morning.  We opted for a D-Day all day tour. 

A bit of the French Countryside.

The bus took us an hour and a half up the Normandy coast where our first stop was at a memorial park overlooking Omaha Beach, one of the two beaches taken by the US troops.

There was a large memorial overlooking the beach…

and a large, metal sculpture in the water.  It was beautiful and sobering.

In the distance we could see the cliffs of Utah beach, the second of the two beaches taken by the US troops. 

A time capsule to opened one hundred years from the D-Day, Jun 6, 2044.

The next stop was the American Cemetery at Omaha beach.  

It contains the graves of 9,387 American service men killed during the Overlord campaign to free Europe from Germany occupation.  The soil is French but under the care of The American Battle Monuments Commission, our tax dollars at work. 

The Wall of the Missing is inscribed with the names of 1,557 service members missing in action. 

The grounds are beautiful with a vast expanse of grave markers. 

Most were Christian Crosses that were intermingled with Jewish Stars of David and a few Islamic crescents.  Sobering.

There a lovely plaza with a semi-circle of columns and a statue…

a beautiful chapel…

and reflecting pool. 

A plaque beside an olive tree that was planted in honor of the centennial year of the founding of the American Battle Monuments Commission.

From there we headed out, only to have the bus break down.  Think the transmission went.  It could roll backwards but couldn’t go forward.  So, they sent for a new bus.  It would take an hour for the new bus but, fortunately, there was a D-Day Museum, Overlord Museum, a five-minute walk away.  So, we spent time visiting the museum while we waited for the bus.

Once the bus arrived we went directly to the waterside town of Arromanches les Bains for a very nice, very French lunch…salad, fresh bread, roasted chicken with a lovely sauce, potatoes and apple tart. 

There was a small plaza across from the restaurant, so we got a few photos there. 

Arromanches was the site where the Allies built an artificial port where they could bring in war materials for the effort to drive Germany from France.  We could see some of the concrete structures near the beach.  

Then, it was on to Pointe du Hoc, a point that was a German installation atop a steep cliff.  

It had gun emplacements that overlooked both Omaha and Utah beaches, so was a key target for a contingent of US Rangers that scaled the cliffs and took out the guns.

Monuments at Pointe du Hoc.

Then it was the long drive back to Le Havre and the ship.