Omaha Beach, July 11

Tuesday, July 11
Omaha Beach, Vierville-sur-Mer, France

Today we cycled 23 miles from Bayeux to Omaha Beach, scene of some of the fiercest fighting by U. S. Army troops during the Battle of Normandy. More... I biked most of the way with Peggy, then got a lift up a steep incline in the van with Adel to meet up with the group at the Omaha Beach Landing Museum.

After the museum, we biked down to the beach where we met a local guide named Guillaume Marie, a Normandy resident and World War II expert. (Normandy was settled centuries ago by Vikings. You can tell just by looking at Guillaume.)

Guillaume (pronounced gee-ohm) was very knowledgeable about the battle, as well as very passionate about it since it directly affected his family. His grandmother, who was only six years old at the time, agreed to hide some American soldiers on her family’s farm near Utah Beach until the Germans had moved on (after they had bribed her with American chocolate, that is). Later on, his great-grandmother was killed on their farm during the bombing of Normandy, which was meant to destroy German communication lines in the Norman towns. It is estimated that about 50,000 French civilians were killed in the bombings before and after D-Day. Liberation had a dark side, too.

Code-named “Operation Overlord,” the D-Day landings remain the largest military operation in history, and the beaches of Normandy bore the brunt of the invasion. Omaha Beach witnessed the most intense fighting as nearly 7,000 boats hit this coastline, pouring tens of thousands of Allied soldiers onto French shores in the early morning hours of June 6, 1944. The number of Allied soldiers killed on D-Day has traditionally been estimated at 2,500. However, more recent research suggests it was much higher, about 4,414. That figure includes about 2,000 U.S. casualties at Omaha Beach alone. Total German casualties are not known, but are estimated at between 4,000 and 9,000.

The now tranquil shore of Omaha Beach

Remains of a German bunker on Omaha Beach

The "Ever Forward" monument honoring the 29th Division's 116th Regiment

So many soldiers died just landing on Omaha Beach that they were buried where they fell, until being moved later to the Normandy American Cemetery.

Remains of a German casement that was "neutralized" by the 467th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion

Guillaume then walked us down to the remains of a German casement. Standing inside near the now-disabled gun, he described how it was taken out by three shots from the U. S. 467th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion.

Guillaume told us that any German soldiers encountered by the Allied troops were killed immediately, even if they surrendered, because they had no time to take prisoners-of-war (which explains why the German casualties were so much higher). He said that of one particular German regiment, only 5 soldiers out of 550 survived the landing on Omaha Beach, and that was because they had been injured beforehand and were shipped out.

Guillaume said that one of these surviving German soldiers comes back to Normandy regularly to visit the area that he defended, and that he has become friends with many former U. S. soldiers who also return to visit the beach they fought to secure. (Although the French people call D-Day “The Liberation,” Guillaume said the Germans refer to it as “The Invasion,” because they saw France as their territory. Both sides in a war inevitably see things from their own viewpoint.) Guillaume said that this particular German soldier, like many others, was not a Nazi at all but a simple German farm boy who was conscripted into the military, given a gun, and told he had to defend his homeland.

The whole visit was very sobering to everyone. If anyone ever needs a reminder of the sacrifices made by that generation for freedom and liberty, a trip to this place will do it better than any history book.

After Omaha Beach, we got back on our bikes and cycled along the shore a short distance to the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mere, a 172-acre area overlooking Omaha Beach and the English Channel. The site contains almost 10,000 perfectly aligned white crosses and Stars of David marking the graves of American servicemen and women who died in World War II. (In contrast, the nearby German cemetery has 27,000 graves on a 17-acre site, which tells you decisively who won the Battle of Normandy.) The cemetery is considered American soil, donated by the people of France, and flies the American flag.

Guillaume met up with us again at the cemetery to provide insight, answer questions, and point out the grave sites of notable people.

The grave of Robert J. Niland, one of the brothers on whom the movie "Saving Private Ryan" is based. He and his brother Preston were both killed in action in the Battle of Normandy and are buried in the Normandy American Cemetery. The pine cone on the cross is a local custom of remembrance.

The grave of Theodore Roosevelt Jr., son of the former President and cousin to FDR, the President at the time of D-Day. He was the only battalion general to land on Omaha Beach by sea in the first wave that day. He won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions on D-Day. He died five weeks after D-Day of a heart attack. His youngest brother Quentin, an aviator who died in World War I, was moved from a WWI cemetery in France to lie next to his brother.

The grave of Dolores M. Brown, one of only four women buried in the Normandy American Cemetery. She and three other Women's Army Corps (WACs) members were part of the first all-female, all-African-American battalion to serve overseas. She and her fellow WACs were all killed in the same Jeep accident and are all buried here.

Guillaume told us that the families of the U. S. soldiers killed in Normandy were given the choice of whether they wanted their remains shipped home or buried in France. About 40% chose to have the remains of their family members brought home to the States; the rest lie here, in the land they died liberating.

Guillaume also said there are many soldiers from both sides who were buried in unmarked graves on farms around the Normandy countryside by the locals. The American cemetery features a Wall of the Missing on which are inscribed the names of 1,557 missing or unidentified Allied soldiers. Rosettes mark the names of those who have since been recovered and identified.

After Guillaume had left, we had a half-hour or so to wander around on our own to see the memorials and the chapel on the cemetery grounds. Then we all boarded another private bus for a 1½ hour ride to our next hotel, La Ferme des Mares (“The Farm of the Pond,” so named because of the large pond on the grounds). The hotel is located on the outskirts of Saint-Germain-sur-Ay and has a unique history. It was once an ancient Norman fortification, then became a sprawling country farmhouse before being transformed into a hotel. (It’s still pretty sprawling; our hosts had to show each couple to their rooms or we never would have been able to find them on our own.)

We had another three-course group dinner tonight in the hotel dining room.