Bayeux - Omaha Beach

Today's main objective was to tour Omaha beach, which is the other American battle sight in Normandy. We were with the same guide, Jules from Battlebus. It was another full day of touring. We were super tired by the end!

Our first stop was the German Cemetery where something like 3000 soldiers are buried. It was a sad place, but it was a stop to see the effects of the ware on the German side, too. They had a nice exhibit in the visitors center there. Here is Aaron walking in the cemetery. These are just to give you an idea of the losses that the Germans had in Normandy (there are 2 or 3 other German cemeteries in the area).
We made a stop at a field to get another battle story, and we went to Ponte du Hoc. This is where the Rangers were sent in with the mission to destroy 4 long range guns (30 km range) that were key to the success of the Omaha beach mission. It was a very well defended area with tons of guns, bunkers, and protections not to mention the giant cliff that it is situated on. Yeah, basically, it was a suicide mission that they were on. These guys not only had to climb up the cliff on rope ladders, but they also had to deal with the fact that they had lost the element of surprise because they were late (went to the wrong point because of bad weather). They eventually were able to get up, found the guns hidden and destroyed them. The battle took a couple of days before the reenforcements got there, and it was a costly battle. The rangers lost all but 90 out of the 225 men.

This is me walking away from one of the machine gun posts.

Here is me with the cliffs in the background. The weather was pretty cold and crummy, but you can still see what the guys were dealing with to climb these cliffs.

Aaron with a portion of bombed out bunker. I guess the Americans and French tried to destroy a bunch of these bunkers here after the war but weren't successful. Too well made, I guess. Most of the damage here was from bombings before the Normandy invastion (they dropped tons of bombs before).
Aaron in one of the craters from the bombings.

Just a pretty picture.

Aaron with the cliffs in the background.
Aaron in another crater. You can see some of the ruins from the bunkers in the background.
This is the tank and Battlebus outside the Omaha Beach museum. We spent some time here. They had a lot of interesting pictures inside, but honestly, I was tired of museums by this point. It becomes overwhelming after a while.
Next we made a stop at Omaha Beach where the ground troops came in. Jules told us about the ground invasion and how the troops came in to take the roads that come up from the beach. Again, there were a lot of American losses as it was a well defended beach. Eventually, they were able to slowly get up through a bunker into a ravine and succeed that way. You can see how massive the beach is from these pictures. The Germans certainly had the advantage on this beach.

Aaron listening to the tour while on Omaha beach.
And me on the beach. The tides were really incredible. When we drove by 2 hours earlier, the water was all the way up to the wall.
A view towards Ponte du Hoc. The triangle things were on the beach to destroy boats.
We stopped at the ravine for a quick picture and then drove up to one of the best preserved sites that we saw. It also happened to have a great view, but it also gives you an idea of the advantage the Germans had. It is really amazing that the Americans succeeded because they certainly had a huge disadvantage. Anyway, at this site, they still had the trenches so you could see really how the defense was laid out. Plus, we were the only ones there (certainly not in any tour books).

Here are Aaron and I. You can see the trenches and a machine gun post on the ground.
And me (Jules is the dude on the left).
Next we drove to the American cemetery. There are over 9000 soldiers buried here. We first went in the visitor's center (which is new) and looked at their exhibits. We really didn't have enough time there. They had a lot of stories and photos, and we didn't have time to look much. After the exhibit, we walked out into the actual cemetery.

I liked this quote that was outside the visitor's center.
This is me at the reflecting pond in the cemetery. This is part of the memorial to the over 1500 American soldiers missing from WWII.
A couple of additional pictures at the cemetery. No matter which way you look, the markers are in line.
Here is Aaron at the overlook onto Omaha beach. You can see the remains of a vehicle in the water.
After that stop, we drove back to Bayeux. It really was an excellent tour. I'm glad we spent the money to be guided because we certainly wouldn't have learned so much.

We had dinner at the restaurant in our hotel. We had yummy pizza and crepes for dessert. I was tired so I relaxed in the room. Aaron went out and took some night photos. I think they turned out nicely. He is quite the photographer :)

Monday, May 5, 2008, Bayeux and Omaha Beach, France