Bayeux Cathedral (Day 17, Part 3 of 3)

Feeling refreshed after our nap, we decided to go back in to Bayeux for a little bit more wandering.  The Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Bayeux, or Cathedral of Our Lady of Bayeux, was consecrated on July 14, 1077, in the presence of William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy and King of England, and his wife Matilda.

 

 

The cathedral was completed during the reign of William the Conqueror. It was built in about fifty years, and for several centuries it housed the famous Bayeux Tapestry, commissioned by Odon de Conteville, Bishop of Bayeux and half-brother of William. In 1204, when Normandy became part of the Kingdom of France, it was a prosperous city, dominated by the church. In the 18th century the town began to modernize and the castle and walls were dismantled. 

 

 

There are number cathedrals with "Notre Dame" in their name.  That is simply French for "Our Lady."  I Googled "Our Lady Catholic Church" and 185 Million results showed up!  There were 92 Million results when I searched on "Notre Dame Church."  Both are very common names for Catholic churches.  The most well known "Notre Dame" is in Paris, which we would see the next day.

 

We walked around the outside for quite a while.  As with most cathedrals in Europe, this was massive!

 

 

We followed the signs to the entrance.

The inside was impressive as well.

We were still full from lunch, so we headed back to our château.  It was time to pack again.  Next stop - Paris!

Arromanches-les-Bains and Gold Beach, Normandy (Day 17, Part 2 of 3)

 

About 15 miles east of Omaha Beach is the town of Arromanches-les-Bains and Gold Beach.  Gold Beach was the middle of the five D-Day beaches and was assigned to the British Infantry Division. The objectives at Gold were to secure a beachhead, move west to capture Arromanches and establish contact with the American forces at Omaha, capture Bayeux and the small port at Port-en-Bessin, and to link up with the Canadian forces at Juno to the east.  Quite a task!

Bombing of Normandy began around midnight with over 2,200 British and American bombers attacking targets along the coast and further inland. At Gold, naval bombardment by Bombarding Force K got underway at 05:30, at which time the first waves of infantry were loading into their Landing Craft Assault for the run in to the beach. German defensive positions were attacked by medium and heavy bombers and by self-propelled guns on board the landing craft.  Results were good at Mont Fleury Battery and at Longues, where at 07:00 Ajax and Argonaut took out of commission three of the four guns in a large emplacement.

 

Pockets of German resistance remained throughout the beachhead area and the British were stopped about 3.7 miles short of their D-Day objectives.  Bayeux, a primary D-Day objective for 50th Division, was captured on June 7th. By the end of D-Day, the 50th Division had lost around 700 men. Total casualties, from all units involved in operations at Gold, were in the region of 1,000–1,100 casualties, of which 350 were killed.  German losses are unknown; at least 1,000 were captured. 

 

 

Seen on Gold Beach are remains of Mulberry Harbor B.

 

After the Allies successfully held beachheads following D-Day, two prefabricated harbors were taken in sections across the English Channel from southern England with the invading armies and assembled off Omaha Beach (Mulberry "A") and Gold Beach (Mulberry "B").  The Mulberry harbors were to be used until major French ports could be captured and brought back into use after repair of the inevitable sabotage by German defenders. The Mulberry B harbor at Gold Beach was used for 10 months after D-Day, and over 2.5 million men, 500,000 vehicles, and 4 million tons of supplies were landed before it was fully decommissioned.

 

As you can see, it was another beautiful day.  Sunny and warmer than the day before.  We wandered for a while then decided to get lunch at Hotel de Normandie.  This was a cute little hotel with an attached restaurant.

 We both ordered cheeseburgers and they were delicious!

We then headed back to our lovely château for a much needed nap!

Overlord and Omaha Museums, Normandy (Day 17, Part 1 of 3)

 

Our trip was quickly coming to end and we had one more full day in Normandy.  I had booked e-bikes, thinking that would be a fun way to explore.  Unfortunately, due to allergies, neither of us felt up to riding.  When Les doesn't feel up to riding, you know he's not well!  It was also very windy, so we decided to cancel.  It was too late to cancel on Viator, so we stopped by the bike shop to let them know.  They said they couldn't refund our money, but if we ever came back they would give us a free rental.  When we got home, I contacted Viator and they gave us a full refund!  I wasn't expecting it, but was glad I asked.

We visited two more museums that day - Overlord Museum and Omaha Beach Memorial Museum.  It may seem strange that we spent so much time visiting so many museums, but we really did enjoy it.  D-Day and the months that followed it changed the course of World War II and history as we know it.  Reading the stories of sacrifice, bravery, heroic acts, and victory are important.

We started at the Overlord Museum.  Operation Overlord was the code name for the invasion of Normandy.  This is one of the largest museums we went to and it was also very crowded.   We didn't know it at the time, but the museum was celebrating its 10th anniversary.  We were there on June 2nd and a large celebration took place on June 5th.  Outside there was a food pavilion and inside there were many visitors.  

As the crowds moved on, we noticed a young teenage boy who seemed to be following the same path as us.  Les and I always take our time reading the displays and this boy was doing the same thing.  His parents were there somewhere, but he really seemed to be taking everything in.  He was reading the displays in French, while we were reading the same ones in English.  We enjoyed watching someone so young take such a keen interest in history.

Just two miles away was the Omaha Beach Memorial Museum, which opened in 1999.  The building was used as a field hospital during World War II.  It was much smaller than the Overlord Museum but had a lot of personal items that belonged to soldiers.  The museum website describes it like this, "permitting a peep into the daily lives of all those who landed to liberate us and to whom we owe our profound respect."  We also watched a film that interviewed many American veterans.

Our self-guided tour continued in Arromanches...

Omaha Beach, Normandy (Day 16, Part 8 of 8)

 

Our final stop of our tour was a quick one because some of our group needed to catch a train back to Paris.  While casualties were the lightest at Utah Beach, Omaha was a different story.

 

All night before the American amphibious attack on Omaha, Allied bombers dropped hundreds of tons of bombs on German beach defenses. But in Omaha, the precision of the bombing was terrible: disabled by a very strong fog and low clouds, the bombers dropped their bombs a few seconds too early or too late. The result was catastrophic for the Allies: the 13,000 dropped bombs missed their targets and exploded inland, a few kilometers from the beaches.

 

In the early morning, thick smoke due to the bombing of the night masked the coast to the allied ships. The German losses were very low, as much in human lives as in material. For their part, the American soldiers saw the coast burning and lit up with a thousand lights during the naval bombardment, and they thought that the Germans were crushed.

The Germans, standing ready to defend their positions, waited until the last moment to open fire in order to not immediately reveal their positions. As soon as the landing craft hit the beach and the soldiers stepped on the ground in France, a shower of shells and machine-gun bullets fell upon them. The first assault wave was decimated: in the first five minutes of the assault, nearly 90% of its forces are put out of action.

112 tanks belonging to the 741st and 743rd Tank battalions are scheduled to disembark at 6:30 am on Omaha to support the infantry.  Only 58 tanks reached the mainland at Omaha Beach. As of 7 am, 14 of them were already destroyed or abandoned. The others were blocked on the beach by the anti-tank wall or skated on the pebbles. Lacking firepower, the infantrymen were unable to silence the German defensive positions. The tanks of 741st TB were particularly attractive to enemy fires and only three of them were still operational at the end of the day.

The beach was strewn with various materials and human bodies shredded by bullets and shrapnel. All these elements were gradually brought back by the rising tide, the wounded, in the middle of the beach and unable to move, were condemned to die by drowning if nobody helped them.

2,500 US soldiers lost their lives, were injured, missing or were taken prisoner in the early hours of the assault. On June 6 at 24 hours, there were nearly 3,000 Americans killed.  This beach now bears the sad nickname of “Bloody Omaha”.   Over the course of the next two days the original D-Day objectives were achieved, but the cost was high.

We returned to our car at 6:30 p.m. - we had spent 10 hours together.  It was an amazing day.  In a place with so much painful history, we were thankful for the victory that came at such a high cost.  Les and I walked into Bayeux for a light dinner, then returned to our room to enjoy some of our Scottish chocolates.  Sunset that night was at 10:00 p.m with the last light at 10:41.  There were almost 16 hours of daylight.  We were tired after our long day but I wouldn't have wanted to miss a minute.

Normandy American Cemetery (Day 16, Part 7 of 8)

Sophie timed our day perfectly - we arrived at the Normandy American Cemetery at about 4:45 p.m.  While we walked from the van we could hear the American National anthem playing.  We arrived as a wreath laying ceremony was taking place.

At the center of the memorial is the bronze statue, “Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves.”  This is where the wreath was laid. 

I don't know who they people were who laid the wreath, I'm assuming family members of a fallen soldier.  They were then escorted to the flag pole as the American flag was lowered and Taps was played.

 

There was a silent reverence as the flag was lowered.

 

While the German Cemetery at La Cambe was less than 20 acres with over 21,000 soldiers buried there, the American Cemetery is 172.5 acres with 9,387 graves.  This was the first American cemetery on European soil in World War II.

 

The cemetery contains the graves of 45 pairs of brothers (30 of which buried side by side), a father and his son, an uncle and his nephew, 2 pairs of cousins, 3 generals, 4 chaplains, 4 civilians, 4 women, 147 African Americans and 20 Native Americans. 

There are headstones with the star of David for Jewish soldiers.  Some of these were originally crosses. Jewish soldiers were known to scratch out their religion on their dog tags, knowing that if they were captured by the Germans their fate would even be worse.  Each soldier had a designated religion on their dog tag - C for Catholic, P for Protestant and H for Hebrew.  An organization called "Operation Benjamin" was created to help locate the graves of any Jewish soldiers that have a cross.  They work in American cemeteries around the world, correcting these mistakes and hoping to bring comfort to the families.

304 unknown soldiers are buried among the other service members. Their headstones read “HERE RESTS IN HONORED GLORY A COMRADE IN ARMS KNOWN BUT TO GOD”.

Among the burials at the cemetery are three recipients of the Medal of Honor, including Theodore Roosevelt Jr., son of President Theodore Roosevelt. After the creation of the cemetery, another son of President Roosevelt, Quentin, who had been killed in World War I, was exhumed and reburied next to his brother Theodore Jr. 

 

The cemetery faces the United States.

 

At the center of the cemetery is a chapel.  On its roof is engraved “THESE ENDURED ALL AND GAVE ALL THAT JUSTICE AMONG NATIONS MIGHT PREVAIL AND THAT MANKIND MIGHT ENJOY FREEDOM AND INHERIT PEACE”.

Outside is engraved on its wall, both in English and French, “THIS CHAPEL HAS BEEN ERECTED BY THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IN GRATEFUL MEMORY OF HER SONS WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THE LANDINGS ON THE NORMANDY BEACHES AND THE LIBERATION OF NORTHERN FRANCE ★ THEIR GRAVES ARE THE PERMANENT AND VISIBLE SYMBOL OF THEIR HEROIC DEVOTION AND THEIR SACRIFICE IN THE COMMON CAUSE OF HUMANITY”. 

 

 

This was the first time all day what we saw blue skies.  It's strange how different this cemetery felt.  While the sacrifice was just as great, unlike at the German cemetery, their lives were not given in vain.  The cemetery overlooks Omaha Beach.

  

At the back of the memorial is the Wall of the Missing.  1,557 engraved names of service members declared missing in action in Normandy. Most of them were lost at sea, including over 480 in the sinking of the SS Léopoldville, torpedoed off the coast of Cherbourg.   19 of these names now have a bronze rosette next to them, meaning that their body was recovered and identified after the cemetery's dedication.

 

 

The engraving behind Les says, “TO THESE WE OWE THE HIGH RESOLVE THAT THE CAUSE FOR WHICH THEY DIED SHALL LIVE”, an abbreviation from one of General Dwight D. Eisenhower's speech.

 

 Inside the memorial are maps of the landings at Normandy.

We were a subdued group when we returned to the van.  One more stop, Omaha Beach.