D-Day Beaches

We spent most of a day in Normandy out at the beach. Didn't get burnt. Probably because we didn't actually pay to go into any of the numerous private museums. We really appreciate the job the US National Park Service does when we see the conglomeration of for-profit junk being passed off as an interpretation of history around this very important region.

Our first stop was in Saint Marie Eglise where, in the movie, Red Buttons' parachute got caught on the church and died with horror in his eyes. We wanted to see if there really is a church on the town square. To our absolute surprise, not only is there a church, there's a parachute and a dummy - not to mention a dozen souvenir stores, a tour, and the Airborne Museum built in the shape of a parachute. Please forgive us for showing you the following pictures.

The church, inside, is quite nice but there's really no excuse for the stained glass windows.

Have you ever seen the Virgin Mary
and paratroopers in the same window?

On to Utah Beach. This is the western-most of 5 areas where troops landed in Normandy at dawn on June 6th - This one by American troops. The terrain is grassy dunes of no more than 20ft high.

There's only three memorials at the beach although there are hundreds around the countryside and a dozen major cemeteries.

The pylon to the right is KM00 of the "Liberty Road" supply line of the Red Ball Express. Documentation says this runs to Bastogne but there these markers seem to peter out after a dozen or so kilometers.

There's also a museum on the beach. It has a "model, photo gallery,
staff maps, an LST, souvenirs, gifts, a 12-minute movie, and a panoramic view."

Omaha Beach saw the heaviest fighting. The beach fronts a cliff at places at least 50ft high. There are three openings in the cliffs at small sea-side towns where roads lead inland. This was also an American beachhead.

At the east end of the area, the beach is now wide and shallow.
We don't really know what it was like 60 years ago.

A series of pillboxes about 500yds back from the cliffside
are open for tourists to wander through.

Gold Beach, to the east, was the site of Port Winston where the mass of supplies entered the continent from England during 1944. Remnants still remain.

Juno, and Sword beaches on the east end now provide recreation for nice sea-side resorts. There are a few memorials and tanks sit at random beside the road. There are also "360-degree theatres" and "tour today" businesses. We never found the one museum we thought sounded good - the Big Red 1 Museum. Oh well. Actually all of these museums might be very nice and are no doubt presented with great respect. Let us know if you get to the area.