Normandy - Part II

Day 2: The American Beaches

Omaha Beach

It was a heavily overcast morning of drizzly rain when we were ushered out of the hotel far too early, after a few hours sleep and a rushed breakfast. We had a very full itinerary ahead of us, to get round the American beaches and museums and make it back in time so that the coach driver would get enough sleep to be able to drive legally on french roads tomorrow. Missing the ferry would not be an option!

The Omaha Beach cemetery was our first port of call and we arrived there so early that they hadn't had time to raise both flags. The Omaha cemetery is an extremely impressive site.
 

Omaha Beach cemetery: the reflecting pool viewed from the main war memorial at 0600 hours

The rows of graves, identical white marble and immaculately kept, give a true sense of the scale of the conflict to anyone who visits. It is extremely moving. 

Crosses in the cemetery

Remember the start of Saving Private Ryan? The grave used in the film for that of (the fictitious) Captain Miller (aka Tom Hanks) is the one in the foreground. All the gravestones are named, but this photo  shows them from the rear. And this is exactly what they did for that scene in the film, as they didn't want to cause offense by the name of anyone who was actually buried there to be visible on screen.

 

View towards the beach

The cemetery was constructed at the top of the bluffs behind the beach above what was Easy Red Sector, assaulted by the US 1st Infantry Division. The whole of the length of Omaha was heavily defended by the Germans on D-Day, and the terrain would have made it all the more difficult to assault. This is very clear to see why when you look towards the sea from this vantage point.

The museum (the Normandy American Visitor Centre) in the cemetery is small but very informative, and is as much a memorial to the fallen as a museum. It tells some interesting stories, including that of the Niland brothers, who were a major part of the inspiration for Saving Private Ryan.

The Niland brothers

Mrs Niland had four sons who served in the US armed forces in World War II. In summer 1944 she received three telegrams within a few days, informing her on the deaths of her sons Robert (82nd Airborne, somewhere in Normandy) and Preston (4th Infantry Division, near Utah Beach), and news that a third brother, Eddie, was reported missing in the Pacific. The fourth brother, Fritz, was sent back to the US. Fortunately Eddie also survived and was rescued later in the war from a Japanese POW camp.

Near the cemetery is the Omaha D-Day Museum. This is a very impressive place with a lot of interesting things to see and some pretty good static exhibits.

US infantry making use of a captured Kettenkrad

M3 halftrack on the beach

A Higgins boat

Hanomag SdKfz 251C halftrack

Go round the corner and you come face to face with a Panzer IV

German pioneers with a BMW, kubelwagen, and SdKfz 251/7

There were also a Borgward and a Maultier, both of which I have never seen before, but both of which were in places that made them very difficult to photograph! Outside the museum there were a few more vehicles worth a look.

Sexton self-propelled gun

M10 tank destroyer

M1A3 Sherman 76mm

From here we drove down to the beach itself, at the E-1 draw. This is in Easy Red Sector, below and to the west of the cemetery.

Easy Red Sector, Omaha Beach

The E-1 draw, a narrow road leading to the east side of the village of St Laurent-sur-Mer, was the position of a defensive strongpoint (Wiederstandnest) WN65, and close to WN64 a hundred yards or so to the east. The defences here comprised two concrete casemates with 50mm guns, a 75mm gun in an open pit, a 20mm flak nest and numerous machine gun positions and mortar pits. The whole area was laid with barbed wire which was mined in places, and the beach itself was strewn with stakes, Czech hedgehogs and other obstacles. In addition, a tank trap was positioned across the beach entrance to the draw.

View inland along the E-1 draw today. WN65 was on the raised area directly ahead

The 50mm gun casemate at the top of the E-1 draw (WN65)

This area, along with the whole of Omaha Beach, was also in the direct firing line of an 88mm gun in a concrete casemate set into the cliffs at the far western end of the beach (WN72). An inland artillery battery could also provide defensive fire to Easy Red Sector.

Further to the west the beach would also have been covered by guns at the top of the cliff at the Point du Hoc, had these not been moved back shortly before D-Day. This cliff was successfully assaulted on 6 June 1944 by US Rangers of the 2nd and 5th Ranger Battalions. Unfortunately our itinerary did not allow time to visit the Point du Hoc - so much else to see!

View to the west, showing the casemate of the 88mm gun position WN72 (left) and cliffs at the Point du Hoc (right)

Memorial to US 29th Infantry Division at Vierville-sur-Mer, D-1 draw, Dog Green Sector

After a brief stop at the D-1 Draw: WN 71 and 72, assaulted by US 29th Infantry Division, and featured in Saving Private Ryan (this will be my last reference to this film in this blog post, I promise), we moved inland to Ste-Mere Eglise, target of the landings of the US 82nd Airborne Division.

Ste-Mere Eglise

The church at Ste-Mere Eglise

The tale of the parachute landing at Ste-Mere Eglise is very well known. For all sorts of reasons many paratroopers missed their landing zones, often by a long way, and while the plan was to land nearby the town and assault it subsequently, some 30 paratroopers landed directly on the town itself. This was particularly unfortunate for them given that a fire had broken out in one of the local houses and many townsfolk and Germans were gathered in the town square as a result. The paratroopers did not stand a chance. Private John Steele, wounded during his landing, ended up with his parachute getting caught on the church tower, where he remained, feigning death, until he was captured by the Germans (shortly to be released when the town was captured later). His story and the memory of 82nd Airborne are celebrated by a life-size model paratrooper that hangs from the church tower, and a unique stained glass window in the church.

The stained glass window, Ste-Mere Eglise church

The tribute to Pte John Steele

To the west of Ste-Mere Eglise some of the fiercest fighting of the day took place at a small but strategically important bridge across the Merderet River known today as the La Fiere Causeway. The bridge was taken and defended by 82nd Airborne despite repeated German counterattacks, until it was finally secured on 10th June. There is now a memorial at this location.

The bridge at La Fiere Causeway, viewed from the memorial

The memorial "The Airborne Trooper" at La Fiere Causeway

 Utah Beach

The museum at Utah Beach is well worth the visit and is in my view one of the best and most interesting of all the D-Day museums. A few photos of the exhibits below.

LVT-2 Amtrac: I was under the impression that these were not used in Normandy but it seems that a few were used as transports at a later stage. I am not aware of any evidence that they were used during the actual landings.

B-26 Marauder

Another Higgins Boat

Nice diorama with PaK40 and DUKW

Old Renault tank turret Panzerstellung

The view of the PaK40 that you don't want to see

The museum is very near the sea so there was ample opportunity to visit the beach itself.

 

Utah Beach

Around the museum there were other interesting things to see.

50mm gun emplacement (not sure why it is aiming at the sky)

Another 76mm Sherman

US heavy anti-aircraft gun

Band of Brothers

 

It really was inevitable that at some point the exploits of E Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne, would be mentioned. So we visited the site of Brecourt Manor (Episode 2 Day of Days for those who want to know). This was the assault on a defended gun position for which then Lt Richard Winters won his DSC and which is often cited (and still used in US military training) as a classic example of small unit tactics and leadership in overcoming a larger enemy force. Winters' force of 12 men faced around 60 Germans in a dug in 105mm gun position defended by emplaced machine guns. E Company are commemorated here by their own memorial.

 



The E Company memorial at Brecourt Manor

The terrain at the site (yes, it's a field) showing the hedge line where the Germans were dug in

La Cambe Cemetery

Though I've general been reluctant to put pictures of the cemeteries we visited (Omaha excepted) on these blog pages I have made an exception for La Cambe. This place is both unusual and interesting as it is a cemetery for the Germans who died in Normandy. It has a distinct style, with trees growing amongst the graves, and simple plaques rather than crosses representing the dead (the crosses are decorative and do not represent the fallen or their graves).

View of the cemetery

Amongst those buried here is one [particularly famous individual, the Panzer Ace Michael Wittmann.

Wittmann's grave

And then back to the hotel ready for an early start to the long coach trip home tomorrow.

Overall, an excellent (though very tiring!) weekend and highly recommended to anyone with an interest in World War II and particularly the Normandy theatre.