Omaha Beach is in
Normandy in the Department of
Calvados and is well known throughout the world as being the site of
the D-Day landing of American forces on June 6, 1944. It is also the site of the
American Cemetery where 9,387 American Service
men and women are buried, each with a separate white marble grave marker. This number makes it the largest American armed forces
burial site. The cemetary also has a memorial, a chapel and a "Garden of the Missing".
We visited on our first trip in
2002. One day we drove along the
invasion beaches from the British beaches in the east, starting in Oistreham, ending
west of Omaha Beach at Pointe du Hoc, the site of a
US Ranger attack in search of artillary guns that proved to be missing. Driving
along the road that parallels the water we could see that the land on the landside on our left was very low in the British and Canadian
sectors, the Sword, Gold and Juno beaches. This meant that whatever German forces there were on that landside did not have a
high vantage point from which to aim at the invaders. We stopped at Arromanches to view the so-called
Mulberries--concrete floating
docks that had been towed over from England to be used by supply ships. These had been sunk by a sudden storm not long after
D-day and still could be seen sticking out of the water not very far off shore. There also is a
museum that describes them on
the beach at Arromanches.
When we arrived at Omaha beach the land side had become high cliffs. It was on top of these
that German gunners shot at the Americans trying to land and establish a beachhead. Today the cliff overlooking the beach is
a lookout point at the end of the main pathway in the American Cemetery, with the monument on the right and the grave markers on the
left as you walk from the reception center to the water. We could not help but notice that most of the people we met while walking
around were speaking French. There were almost no English speakers that day.
On that first trip Ron only had a video camera
and tried to film what we saw. But as he had to stop when he found that the camera was shaking too much because he was sobbing
so hard. It just came on very suddenly. That place, with so many white crosses and a few stars of David, just has that
effect on you.
Our next trip there was in 2006, on Memorial Day as it turned out. Ceremonies were held there, but since
they were on the Sunday before Memorial Day, we did not see them. But we did see the American and French flags at half staff.
And all of the over 9000 grave markers had small American and French flags stuck into the grass in front. The flags had
been placed there by French and American (from Heidelburg, Germany) Boy Scouts. And many of the graves were also decorated
with fresh flowers. Very moving and very dignified.
When we went on to Point du Hoc on our first trip, the most striking
impressions were of the terrain which still looked like it had been bombed heavily, huge craters everywhere, 52 years after D-day.
And of the concrete bunkers wherethe guns had been before the Rangers successfully climbed the tall cliff, taking heavy losses.
