“Hello, I am Johnathon” our jovial guide blurts out in free flowing English with a pleasant French accent. Born in Caen and living in Normandy all 28 years of his life, he has never known Normandy without the history that made it famous on D-Day, the 6th of June 1944.
It is immediately clear his historical knowledge far exceeds our own, not only on World War II Normandy, but Hollywood movies and much of our own American History. “The Longest Day is the only movie actually filmed here in Normandy. Saving Private Ryan was shot in Ireland. Patton in England.”
We are going to learn a lot today.
Our first stop, the German cemetery. Odd. It would have never occurred to me to visit the German cemetery, the largest population of buried soldiers of any Normandy cemetery at 21,000. “Being a German Soldier was worse than being an American Prisoner. The American’s let you eat, drink, and smoke. Not the Nazis.” Johnathon recounts how many conscripted German soldiers had their luggage packed the 7th of June and were waiting to surrender to the Americans knowing the efforts of the day before meant their war was happily over.
La baterie de Longues-sur-Mer, a German coastal gun battery that formed part of the Atlantic Wall, was just such a place. Located on the cliffs above Omaha and Gold landing beaches, it was heavily bombed ahead of the D-Day landings. The French cruiser Georges Leygues and the U.S. battleship Arkansas fired on it beginning early on D-Day in support of the landings. Their luggage already packed, the crew of the battery (184 men, half of them over 40 years old and likely conscripted), surrendered to the 231st Infantry Brigade the following day.
Not all German soldiers were Nazis, a point I never considered before. Many didn’t want to be shot at home by the Nazis so they fought in the War. Many didn’t want to be shot in the War so they surrendered. Still 200,000 Germans lost their lives in Normandy.
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| John Steele's likeness hangs from the Cathedral in Sainte-Mère-Église |
Sainte-Mère-Église is crawling with soldiers. Army uniforms past and present cover the majority of people at the plaza under the Steeple where John Steele hung by his parachute for several hours pretending to be dead before cutting himself free under the cover of dark. A replica parachute and likeness of Steele hangs as he hung from the Church steeple, a reminder of the famous moment that came to epitomize the 82nd Airborne’s arrival here behind Utah Beach.
The timing of our visit is unexpectedly perfect, sandwiched between the 6th of June when Allied forces landed and the 18th of May, the Anniversary of the end of War in Europe in 1945, less than a year later. Current enlisted soldiers, those long since retired, fans of the era, the majority of people are uniformed to commemorate what happened here. Restored jeeps drive the roads and line he plazas, all flying the flags of France and US. C47 like aircraft buzz so low overhead you want to duck for cover. The theatrics, the bustle of activity, enhance the activity quite dramatically.
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| Present Day Sainte-Mère-Église buzzes with activity of the period |
Utah beach is shockingly narrow and flat. Fortunately, heavy winds blew the landing party 2km down the beach, away from where they intended to land and much heavier German fortifications. Landing against only 200 Germans enable the beach and surrounding area to be secured in 2 hours. Just 20 Americans died in the process. Omaha beach stands in stark contrast. One kilometer of beach must be crossed at low tide to reach the beach's bluffs. It is anything but flat to reach the German cannons and machine gun nests. The casualty rate of the first wave of soldiers was 90%. The 2nd and 3rd wave lost 50%.
The first breakout from the beach didn’t come until 10 am, long after Utah Beach was secured. The story goes that First Lieutenant Jimmie W. Monteith, Jr ran the width of the beach five times relaying the position of German gun positions to offshore gun boats and then organized an attack up the left flank of Omaha beach thereby achieving a critical first foothold from which troops could then attack the three other cannons and 30+ machine gun positions along the 7km strip of beach. He was killed by enemy fire before the days end and received a posthumous award of the Medal of Honor for his valiant actions.
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| McDonald's at the American Cemetery near Colleville-sur-Mer |
Theodore Roosevelt, Jr was also a Medal of Honor recipient. He fought in both World Wars and led the Utah beach landing. Though he walk with a cane and suffered from severe arthritis he insisted in coming ashore with his men. He was in Sainte-Mère-Église. He died a month later of a heart attack.
Also among the brothers buried here are two of the four Niland Brothers. At one point three of the four brothers were believed KIA, one in the Pacific the other two in Normandy. One brother, Edward, was later found alive, a Japanese prisoner, but not until Fritz had been returned home to his family. The story served loosely as the inspiration for Stephen Spielberg’s movie “Saving Private Ryan.”
The German Battery at Pointe Du Hoc sits on the opposite end of Omaha Beach from the Battery at Longues-sur-Mer. Commanded by Lieutenant Colonel James Earl Rudder, a company of 225 Rangers from the US 2nd Ranger Battalion received the mission to secure Pointe Du Hoc and the six 155MM guns that could fire over Omaha and Utah beaches and up to 15 miles. Pushed by the same heavy seas that sent the Utah landing party down the beach, the Rangers came ashore at the wrong point, returned to sea, and landed 40 minutes late on the Pointe’s flank and lost the element of surprise. Undaunted they scaled the 100+ foot cliffs with rocket propelled grappling hooks with support from off-shore gun boats. The Rangers regrouped at the top and learned the cannons had been withdrawn and move a mile inland to avoid the American carpet bombing. The Rangers found the cannons and used thermite grenades to take them out. At the end of the two days fighting only 90 men from the original landing party remained able to fight.
Stories of men like Jimmie W. Monteith, the Niland Brothers, Rudder, Roosevelt, Jr, are everywhere. I think of my Great Uncle Woody, Woodrow McDonald, who flew 63 bombing missions over this place and onto Germany as a pilot in the Royal Canadian Airforce. My grandfather, James McDonald also served in the RCAF. My Mom's Dad, Garland Beacham was a cook in the US Army. Laura's Grandpa, Ken McGrew, was in the US Army as well. Garland and Kenny never left the States, but it further drives home the point how many people were touched by the events of this place and other theaters. The scale of the Normandy operation across five landing beaches and 60+ miles of coast line drives is massive in scale and significance yet one battle. The geographies and inhabitants of the world were truly consumed in War.
Near the end of their invasion window the Normandy Operation, Operation Overlord, had no choice but to go, regardless of rough seas and high winds. A week after the landing another storm rolled through, “the worst in a century” as many locals recounted, and took out the artificial harbor the Americans built at Omaha Beach. Fortunately the British port at Arromanches, Gold Beach, held and the Americans succeeded in taking Cherbourg.
There are a lot of ifs. If Operation Overlord, had failed or if Hitler had attacked retreating French and British forces earlier at Dunkirk, if any small handful of things had gone differently, it would have been a dramatically different War.
The loss of human life was so great the surf ran red onto the beaches for two days. You see it and feel it everywhere you go. A bond between Americans, French, English, Canadian, and Australian was forged here in Normandy that truly changed the world.
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