Our last day in Bayeux turned out to have the worst weather! I don't know if I've mentioned the weather yet in a post, but it's been a lot like Seattle weather here in Normandy. A bit cloudy and overcast every day with glimpses of sun peeking through, a bit windy, and it's probably been in the high 50s to low 60s most of the time. And of course it's colder out by the water. But the last couple of days the wind has been colder than normal and really picking up off the water (that darn English wind)! In fact, a few days ago when we were at Utah beach it was so cold and windy that I bought a heavy polar fleece coat to wear under my raincoat. I'm so thankful for that because today was even colder. We were both bundled up in multiple layers, and I looked like I was going out in the arctic with my gloves on and my wide headband to cover my ears! I'm sure I looked like a total dork! But that's ok! We braved the cold for a few hours and headed out to see the sights!
First up was the German military cemetery that's about 15 minutes away in La Cambe. Neither of us was sure what to expect after feeling all the pride and sorrow at the British and American cemeteries, but this was actually a really interesting experience. The visitor's center is completely focused on the tragedy of war for all involved, as well as the need to work for peace around the world. (You'll see some quotes from the exhibits farther down the page.)
The cemetery opens with a heavy stone wall and small rounded entry.Through the entry you can see back to the raised cross on top of a grassy mound marking a mass grave. The two figures on either side of the cross are grieving parents. Everything about this cemetery seemed dark and depressing.
All across the cemetery you see small clusters of 5 dark stone crosses. There is no inscription on the crosses. But if you look below them, you'll see the much smaller flat stone markers. All of these flat stones mark the place of two soldiers buried together, and both names are inscribed on the small stone.
This marker shows one unknown soldier (top) and one whose name is shown. That common thread of seeing inscriptions for unknown soldiers, no matter what country's cemetery, is a very sad thing.
Below are a few of the quotes about war and peace that we saw on exhibits in the visitor's center. It wasn't a fancy or modern center like at the American Cemetery, but it was still very moving. I got the sense (as I did when I was in Berlin a few years ago) that Germany is doing everything it can to express remorse and outrage over what two greedy, evil tyrants (Kaiser Wilhelm from WWI and Hitler from WWII) did to damage the world.
And here are a couple pics I took of posters in the center. They show aerial views of the cemetery so you can see how large it is. Over 20,000 fallen soldiers are buried here.
After that really interesting experience, we headed back towards the Omaha Beach area, specifically, Point du Hoc. If you don't know about the Army Rangers that scaled Point du Hoc, you really should research more than the little bit of info I'm giving here. It is another amazing story about men who had the courage to do something that most of the rest of us can't even imagine. (Almost all of the text below is quoted from the plaque at the beginning of the walk around the historical site.)
"In the early morning of June 6, 1944, 225 men of the 2nd Ranger Battalion began a daring assault on Point du Hoc. Situated between Omaha Beach and Utah Beach, this dominating piece of land was consider by German defenses to be virtually unassailable from the sea because of the steep cliffs. The primary mission of the Rangers was to destroy the [five large] guns atop Point du Hoc to prevent them from delivering their devastating fire on the landing beaches." (The guns were large enough that they could target both beaches and any ships that came close for the landing.)
"Deemed one of the most dangerous enemy positions on the invasion front, the neutralization of the guns was a primary objective on D-Day morning." The Allies had been bombing Point du Hoc for two hours prior to the rangers' scheduled assault, but "due to a navigating error, the rangers were force to traverse three miles of coastline under fire from cliff top gun positions and landed approx 40 minutes late, losing the element of surprise."
"Scaling precipitous cliffs, using specially designed ropes and ladders in the face of determined enemy fire, the rangers quickly reached the top. The Rangers swarmed over their objective to find and destroy the guns but they found only empty emplacements."(Unknown to the Allies, the Germans had moved the five large guns quite a ways back from the cliff because the enemy bombardment had been so heavy they were afraid of severe damage to the weapons.)
"Without pause the Rangers rapidly advanced inland and blocked the coastal highway that connected Grandcamp and Vierville [to small towns] to prevent German reinforcements from moving towards Omaha Beach. Moving further south, two rangers found the well-camouflaged guns ready to fire in the direction of Utah Beach. With enemy gun crews close by, one of the rangers destroyed the five guns using grenades while the other ranger provided protective gun cover. With the aid of naval gunfire the rangers held out for two more days against heavy enemy counterattacks. By the time the Rangers were relieved two days later only 90 effective fighting men [of the original 225] remained.
Here are a few pics of what the Point du Hoc area looks like today. It has the remains of bunkers and gun emplacements, huge craters made by Allied bombs, etc. It's a really amazing place to explore.
This is me standing down in one of the huge craters. This wasn't even the deepest one!
These are a few French recreators reenacting the rangers discovering the hidden guns.
You probably can't tell it so much from this picture, but the wind was blowing like crazy and the water was crashing up against the rocks! After several hours of being out in this weather we finally decided to head for the warmth of the hotel until dinner.
Tomorrow we leave Bayeux and head to Mont St. Michel for one night. It is a huge monastery perched on top of a rocky island off France's northwestern coast. We can't wait to see it!
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