 |
Omaha Beach in France as it is today near "Les Braves" sculpture by Anilore Banon. Photos: Phyllis Shess, 2013.
|
 |
| Pointe Hoc, 2013 |
 |
Pointe du Hoc, viewed in 1944, is a 100-foot cliff eight miles west of the American cemetery. It is where soldiers of the 2nd Ranger Battalion scaled the cliff to disable German guns threatening Utah and Omaha Beaches. The bomb and artillery craters are still very much evident 69 years later.
WHY WE REMEMBER—History has fascinated me since college. At San Diego State University, I had professors who balanced reality and what ifs to make history come alive. The what ifs stuck with me.
It’s intriguing to mull what if this happened instead of that and how would the world
be different?
What if Confederate
general Robert E. Lee was better prepared at Gettysburg in 1863 would he have
been able to negotiate a peace in the South’s favor? What if
the assassination attempt on Hitler had succeeded?
 |
|
Architects for the American Cemetery's memorial features were
Harbeson, Hough, Livingston and
Larson
of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The landscape architect was Markley Stevenson,
also of Philadelphia. |
Most likely, in the case of
the latter, a battle day like June 6, 1944 would have occurred sometime, but
maybe not as many lives would have been lost?
What would have those saved lives contributed to the world? Impossible
questions to answer, yet the what ifs are profound and often bittersweet to
think about.
 |
|
Interred within this American soil in France are the remains
of 9,387 servicemen and women. Three hundred and seven of which are Unknowns
(those which could not be identified), three Congressional Medal of Honor
recipients, and four women. Also buried here, side by side, are father and son,
and 33 pairs of brothers. Each grave is marked with a white lasa marble
headstone, a Star of David for those of the Jewish faith, a Latin cross for all
others.
|
Recently, my family spent a
cold, rainy April day exploring Utah and Omaha beaches in Normandy and the
associated museum sites and memorial cemeteries. We walked on the hallowed ground where our sons’
granddads had landed at Omaha Beach. Mixing
history with personal history is so poignant.
Tears were close to the surface all day.
In 2013, Omaha Beach couldn’t
have been more serene in the morning but when the storm hit in early afternoon it
was friendly no more. In the late spring
of 1944, a storm of the century hit the Normandy region and summer was slow in
arriving. Jumping out of a landing craft
and trying to run fast in knee high water was hard enough. Add in someone shooting at you from less than
a city block away in 2013 and there you have another day at the office for WWII
soldiers landing in Normandy or Saipan.
 |
| Sainte Mere Eglise, the first village liberated on June 6, 1944 |
The fact my family can
remember Omaha Beach as part of a whole lifetime of memories we had with our
dads made us the lucky ones. For other family’s memories of their loved one end
at the tombstones at the American Cemetery located nearby.
I had nothing to do with
being a soldier in WWII, but I recently received handshakes from the locals
quietly thanking me because I was an American.
It surprised the hell out of me, but showed class on their part.
We could have spent a week
in Normandy, especially if you include visits to nearby villages like
Bayeux. We have made a promise to return
to Normandy to be among those new generation villagers, who still remember the
price of liberty.
June 6, 1944:
“The massive Allied assault on the Normandy
coastline on June 6, 1944 aimed to liberate France and drive into Nazi
Germany,” reads a plaque near the American Cemetery in Normandy, a province in
Northern France.
 |
| The American Cemetery is on land deeded by France to the United States--forever. |
It continues: “Before dawn
on June 6, three airborne divisions—the U.S. 82nd
and 101st and the British
6th—landed by parachute and glider behind targeted beaches. Allied naval
forces, including the U.S. Coast Guard, conveyed assault forces across the
English Channel. Beginning at 0630 hours, six U.S., British and Canadian
divisions landed on Utah,
Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword Beaches in history’s greatest amphibious assault.
“The U.S. 4th Infantry
Division pushed inland from Utah Beach. To the east, on Omaha Beach, the U.S.
1st and 29th Infantry Divisions battled German resistance over a beach
bristling with obstacles.
To reach the plateau where
Normandy American Cemetery stands, troops fought across an open area of up to
200 yards, and attacked up steep bluffs. By day’s end, the
 |
| The Normandy American Cemetery is one of 14 permanent World War II military cemeteries abroad. |
Americans held fragile
control of Omaha Beach. On Gold, Juno and Sword, British and Canadian divisions
forged ahead. In less than a week, the Allies linked the beachheads and pressed
onward.
Over the next three months,
the Allies battled German troops throughout Normandy. British and Canadians
freed Caen.
Americans liberated
Cherbourg and staged a dramatic breakout near St. Lô.
Allied troops, joined by
French and Polish units, encircled and annihilated German troops at the Falaise
Pocket while surviving [German]units fled eastward. The way was now open to
advance toward Paris and then to Germany.”
 |
| The German Cemetery in Normandy en route to Utah Beach For more on D-Day go to PBS: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dday/index.html?utm_source=Facebook+&utm_medium=Fanpage&utm_campaign=ThisDayHistory |
No comments:
Post a Comment