La plage

We have been without internet for a day and a half but we have something now. My only comment about the B&B where we are is that if your website advertises free Wi-Fi then the absolute minimum that you can provide is Wi-Fi.

I am going to try to preserve the narrative, blogger will let me predate this to the day when we actually did this, so here goes.

I am as guilty as anyone of being a slave to the guidebooks but today I had a very clear view of what I wanted to see first.  We bypassed lots of really important and totally interesting stuff to follow an obscure bit of routing added almost as an afterthought in our favorite guide.  Descend the bluff, turn right, drive to the end of the road.

We walked out onto Omaha Beach at low tide.

Our location was in the Easy Red zone on June 6, the area of the beach that suffered the highest number of casualties of anywhere along the 75 miles of the invasion.  This is the spot where it happened for Americans on D-Day.  More than 2,000 died here that day.

Just visible in left center is a stele poking above the crest line of the ridge, that is a monument at a spot where the defenders had a highly fortified strongpoint, it is also in the front yard of the American Cemetery.

Whatever it was on June 6, 1944, and whatever it has been since, today the beach below Colleville-sur-mer and Saint Laurent-sur-mer is one of the most spectacularly beautiful beach areas you are likely to stumble upon any where in the world at any time in your life.

Peaceful, serene and beautiful, with an abundance of flowering plants.

In fact, Omaha Beach is now a protected natural area.

Omaha Beach was designated as a landing area because it is a place where it is at least theoretically possible to get off the beach and up to the top of the bluff.  There is to be sure, a dauntingly steep hill.  But there are also ravines, areas where the angle of attack to reach the top of the ridge is much more promising.  This bunker sat and still sits at the foot of the ravine leading from Omaha Beach up to Saint Laurent-sur-mer.

The battle histories state that this bunker suffered casualties as a result of the naval bombardment.  The defenses had already been weakened and one of the first half-tracks to make it to shore was able to successfully attack a weakened position and force an opening through the line into the ravine behind.

By 3pm on D-Day a path had been opened and elements of the 16th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division were moving up this ravine towards the crest of the ridge.

Further to the west the town beach at Saint Laurent-sur-mer features one of many war memorials and tributes, this one honoring the 1st Infantry Division, the famous Big Red One.  The inscription on the face of the memorial says in French and in English: "The allied forces landing on the shore which they call Omaha Beach liberate Europe. - June 6th, 1944."

On the side of the memorial the inscription is: "1st US Infantry Division, no mission too difficult, no sacrifice too great.  Duty first.  Forced Omaha Beach at dawn 6 June 1944."

By 9am the next morning Saint Laurent-sur-mer, at the top of the bluff above the beach was the first town in France to be liberated from the beach below.

We had lunch in Saint Laurent.

We were next interested in viewing the American Cemetery.

We entered the parking lot of the cemetery and discovered that there were battle memorials to be seen even before going into the cemetery.

There is the ruins of an enemy stronghold overlooking the sea.  This is the monument that can be barely seen in the earlier picture.  It lists the names of those soldiers who died in the assault on the stronghold.

And a few steps down the hill you come to the ruins.

Even after all that was done to wrest this bunker from the hands of the German forces and even after the passage of all this time the place looks forbidding and dangerous even if it is now a quiet and pleasant spot on the hillside over a beautiful beach.

A bit further down there is a second bunker and a second memorial.  This second memorial is to combat engineers.

Omaha Beach is visible in the background.

We made it into the cemetery eventually.  It is a somber place, obviously.  It is also US territory, ceded by France to the US in 1972.  Most of the areas below the top of the bluff have been allowed to revegetate.  The contours are often softened by many bushes and even trees.  This is a view from the edge of the cemetery down to Omaha Beach which has been kept relatively free of vegetation to allow a more realistic impression of what it must have looked like that day.

Here is a view of the Channel out beyond the beach from within the cemetery.  This photo is attempt to convey what I guess I knew but never knew as well as I know it now, the cemetery is right there, right at the top of the bluff.

The crosses, the endless rows of crosses.  More than 9,000 American dead are interred at this cemetery.  I photographed a couple of crosses that seemed especially poignant to me.  This one is the grave of an American who died on D-Day.

I've got another day of D-Day site photos, I will try to get them posted as soon as I can.

But as for this day, it was getting late into the afternoon and time to get back into town.

Here is the afternoon view out the window of our B&B.

Did I mention? The Cathedral here is Notre Dame de Bayeux.