D-DAY Afternoon Tour

We stopped for lunch at St Mere Elise, which we were familiar with from having just watched the movie ‘The Longest Day.’ This small town had been was liberated at 4:30am on the morning of D-Day by a group of paratroopers who landed in the center of the town. 13,000 paratroopers and gliders were dropped into Normandy with the goal of cutting off the peninsula in a three week time period. Heartbreakingly, more than 60% of the paratroopers were mis-dropped and 200 of them were dropped in water areas and went MIA. In addition to paratroopers, the Allies also dropped dummies with firecrackers code named “Rupert” to mislead the enemy.

We toured the Airborne Museum and wished we’d had more time to experience all of the amazing interactive exhibits.

Church where John Steele's parachute got stuck on the steeple is commemorated today with a statue

SJ's excited to see women helped in Normandy

Boys loved this tuk-tuk turned tank in the movie 'The Longest Day' and were so excited to see it at the museum!

Kids in front of tank with church & parachuter on church in background

One thing that stood out to us, showing how appreciative this area is of the American effort, is that this church had a stained glass window depicting paratroopers along with Mary and the infant Jesus.  This is probably the only church in the world with such a display!

Stained glass window with Mary, Jesus, and Allied Paratroopers

We arrived at Utah Beach and were surprised to discover a flat sandy beach, very different than Omaha. The first troops that descended here on D-Day at 6:30am used Higgins boats that were crammed full with 35 men to a boat. They were seasick, having faced six-foot waves for hours awaiting their arrival, their muscles were cramped, and they were wet and cold from the storm. They waded on shore carrying 60 lbs of gear, to which our oldest son commented how tired he gets after 15 minutes of just carrying his backpack - 1/3 of the weight of their gear! We were told their most common thought was, “Just get me out of this boat,” not, “Let’s go get the Germans!”

Look out - G's in charge of this Higgins boat!

Walking out of the Higgins boat but not really looking ready to attack

Boys pretending to be on a mission

Go get 'em boys!

Unlike Omaha, the Germans didn’t have many bunkers or obstacles in place at Utah; however, more casualties were expected at Utah because the tide was so low and the troops had 300 yards to approach without cover. However, around 8:30am the USS Corry was shot and sank at about the same time a landing craft hit a mine and exploded. One of the first to arrive was Teddy Roosevelt Jr, who was 56 years old and an Assistant Commander who walked needing the assistance of a cane. Upon arriving, he immediately knew they’d landed at the wrong spot but decided it was a better location for the rest of the landings, and this one major decision contributed to the success of that day. A total of 197 GIs were killed at Utah Beach on D-Day.

Utah Beach, quiet and sandy - very different than Omaha Beach

Kids at Utah Beach

The first of 1135 stone markers that mark every km of The Way of Liberty from here to Belgium.
There are 48 stars and the torch of liberty.

Another statue that we could relate to along the way is that of Dick Winters, one of the heroes of HBO’s Band of Brothers. Winters, who was an amazing natural born leader, knew about the statue, but he died before it was complete in 2012. The statue resembles his face and body, but he didn't want to be remembered as a hero & requested that the statue stand for leadership.

Statue honoring the humble Dick Winters made famous from Band of Brothers

As we drove, we learned about different aspects of D-Day that were employed by Allied troops. For example, to check if another soldier was an ally, they would require them to speak a signal word such as, “Flash," "Thunder," or "Your welcome" as these were words Germans couldn't pronounce well. The Allied troops were also given clickers to identify one another in the dark foggy weather where 1 click responded by 2 clicks meant that the responder was an Ally. However, many were killed because they lost their clicker during their jump or because in some cases the sound of a rifle reloading was mistaken for a double click.

We also learned about the land where these battles were fought. For example, the hedgerows, planted all over the Normandy area in the 10th century by the Vikings to protect their crops from wind and help with drainage, actually helped the Germans because troops couldn't see through them and they acted like a maze for GIs just arriving to the area. US cameras were able to show their existence prior to landing, but couldn’t depict their thickness or height, and the troops were caught off guard. In fact, sometimes Normandy is referred to as “The War of the Hedgerows.”  As evidence of just how dense they hedgerows were, many died when landing in the gliders that crashed into the hedgerows at too high of speeds.

We drove through Sainte-Marie-Du-Mont, which was secured mid-afternoon on D-Day. There were bikes everywhere for the Tour de France, which starts this year at Mont Saint Michel on July 2, and rides through this area on the first day, ending at Utah Beach.

Gaining an appreciation for the many unconventional roles played in battle that often don’t receive the glory and honor of those on the field, our final destination was to learn about the roles of two medics in the village of Angoville-Au-Plain. Robert Wright and Ken Moore arrived on D-Day at 10am to be medics for those who landed in German controlled area. They set up inside of a 12th century church and for the two long days that they worked, out of their 80 wounded patients, only 2 lost their lives! They assisted 73 Americans and 7 Germans because of The Geneva Convention. During the two days, this village was bombed twice and changed hands three times! One evening a German soldier walked into the church with his gun and everyone froze unsure of his intentions. The soldier stepped over the bodies and walked to the altar where he knelt and prayed, then turned around and walked out of the church. In another instance a mortar actually crashed through the ceiling but did not explode. Blood stains can be seen on the pews today. This little church is well off the beaten path, but worth a visit if ever in the area.

Years later it was learned that the church's two patron saints, Damien and Cosmas, are twin saints who are the patron saints of healers. Robert returned here several times later in his life and his ashes are here. It was a heart felt story to which we ended our amazing day.

Stained glass in commemorating the Screaming Eagles

Church in German-controlled area where 2 US medics served 80 patients

What surprised us the most about what we’d seen and learned about D-Day in Normandy:

• Dad- That there were over 13,000 paratroopers
• Mom- Realizing how much time the Germans had in France and the prep they did in anticipation of the attacks.
• Caleb- All of the stuff that the Germans had prepared, and the story of the 2 medics at the last stop, who looked like they were my age… A shell came in and landed on the floor of the church, but didn’t explode – it had to be the hand of God.
• CB – I always thought America won because we had so many troops coming in and the Germans weren't prepared, but reality is that the weather caught the Germans off guard and caused us to drift. In reality the Germany actually seemed to have had better odds of winning had it been sunny/good weather.
• G – It was a lot to take in in 1 day… My takeaway is that we should've lost but God was on our side, and I thought the big cemetery was amazing.