Where in the World is Sharon Daugherty2: D-Day June 6, 1944 (70 years later)

We are beginning our full day tour with a company called "Victory Tours". Our guide and the owner of Victory Tours, Roel picked us up in the center of Bayeux. He has been running tours out here for some 26 years or so, so seems most knowledgeable.

We are off to our first stop at one of the artificial harbors at Arromanches. This is what it looked like during the invasion

"On the beach of Arromanches you can see some wide concrete boxes at the surface of the sea. They are the relics of « Port Winston » or « Mulberry B », one of the two artificial harbours built by the Allies to land the men, supplies and equipment necessary for the Battle of Normandy.

The harbour of Arromanches was composed of 71 Phoenix blockships, 500 meters of unloading quays and 8 floating roads wavering with the tide.

Used during 100 days, the harbour of Arromanches permitted to land 400 000 soldiers, 4 million tons of equipment and 500 000 vehicles. This technical success was essential for the Battle of Normandy and gave time to rebuild the port of Cherbourg".

Here is the what remains today looking toward Omaha Beach. The tide is currently going out. Roel says by the time we get to Omaha Beach, we will have a better idea of how far out the men were dropped from the Higgins boats.

Looking toward the British Gold Beach in the far distance along the coast

The leaders

A portion of the pontoon bridge

A Sherman

British guns

When the tide is out you can see the remains of the massive amount of concrete that was sunk to hold the pontoon bridges and how far out to sea these bridges spanned (see the black remains on the horizon) What an undertaking by British Engineers

From here we moved on to the German batteries at Longues-sur-Mer.

The Longues-sur-Mer site is one of the only batteries of the Atlantic Wall with the guns still in place. On the 23rd of March 1942, Hitler decided to build a line of concrete and steel from Cape North to the Gascogne Gulf in order to stop any attempt of an ally landing.

The construction of the Longues-sur-Mer battery began on September 1943, but it was not finished on June 6th 1944.

The battery is composed of 4 pillboxes, a firing direction post and some other fortifications. Each pillbox has a German naval gun with a range of up to 20 km. They could reach the Omaha and Gold sectors.

During the night of June 5th, airborne allies dropped more than 600 tons of bombs on the site but with almost no success. At 5:30 am, German guns fired at the fleets near Omaha and Gold and began an artillery duel. Shortly before 7 pm the Georges-Leygues destroyer finally silenced the battery. On the morning of June 7th, the major responsible for the battery and 184 men surrendered to the British troops.

Damage from naval gunfire

Inside the bunker

Direct hit from the sea took out the gun and blew the ammunition inside

Piece of the gun barrel buried in the mud

Lunch break before Omaha Beach - a little rain can't dampen our picnic

Ham and cheese baguettes and wine

The Big Red One (Army 1st Division) came up this road we are going down

Omaha Beach looking both directions was five miles long

Standing on this peaceful beach with the tide gently going out, it is hard to imagine what those men landing here must have experienced on that day. You do feel you are standing on sacred ground.

Note the water around the rock

So peaceful now, so bloody then

The gun implacements overlooking Omaha Beach

One of the Germans manning the guns on the hill. Eventually taken prisoner, he visited Omaha Beach and talked with Roel about his experiences here.

Roel says that several times a year this red phenomena comes in on the tide. Apparently it never did before D-Day. Locals think it represents "Bloody Omaha"

Another phenomena is that many of the rocks on Omaha Beach seem to be heart shaped. It appears to be true, as we picked up a number of them as we walked along the beach.

There is something about this beach - you know something momentous happened here. Roel says that no one uses this beach for sunbathing or picnicing. It is considered sacred ground. Even the gulls stay away.

Same rock as above no more than ten minutes later, completely out of the water

The tide moves very fast here

Imagine coming across this beach at low tide (running 500 yards in wet sand - 5 football fields) facing

this hill full of machine gun nests laying down devastating fire.

And now we move on to the American Cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach

THE AMERICAN WAR CEMETERY OF COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER

In the cemetery of Colleville-sur-Mer, 9,387 white marble gravestones are perfectly lined up on the field that overlooks Omaha beach.

This 70-hectare site was granted for life by France to the United States. It shelters the bodies of the Americans soldiers who died during the D-Day Landings and the Battle of Normandy.

The graves are shaped into latin crosses for Christian soldiers and stars of David for Jewish soldiers.

Installed at the centre of the memorial, a 7-meter-high bronze statue symbolizes the "spirit of the American youth rising from the waves".

Several big maps tell the story of the liberation of Europe by the Allies as well as the story of the operations in the Pacific.

The round chapel in the middle of the cemetery. On a wall, you can read: "They endured everything and gave their all so that justice among nations might prevail and that mankind might enjoy freedom and inherit peace".

The ceiling

The Peace Chapel

Overlooking Omaha Beach

The landing beaches overlooking Omaha Beach

May they rest in peace

Another important port "Port-en-Bessin"

"The small fishing port was an important objective, because it was intended to be the Normandy terminus for PLUTO (Pipe Line Under The Ocean) which ran from the Isle of Wight to France and was intended to supply a large proportion of the petrol for the Allied armies in Normandy. The port lay between Omaha and Gold beaches and was close to Blay the site of a prospective command post for General Bernard Montgomery, the Allied Ground Forces Commander.

The Battle of Port-en-Bessin took place from 6–8 June 1944, at a small fishing harbour west of Arromanches in Normandy. The village was between Omaha Beach to the west in the V US Corps sector, and Gold Beach to the east in the British XXX Corps sector. An objective during Operation Overlord, the fortified port was captured by No. 47 (Royal Marine) Commando of the 4th Special Service Brigade, during Operation Aubery".

We did not stop here so only a couple pictures on the fly

Linked pontoons. After the Allies left Normandy, the French citizens scavenged everything left behind and used it to rebuild.

Point du Hoc

At Pointe du Hoc, rockets and bombs turned the plateau into a moonlike landscape. This site is a testimony to the terrible battle that took place there between June 6th and June 8th.

After bombardment, this is what it looked like

On June 6th 1944 at 7:11 am, the 225 men of Lieutenant colonel James Rudder's 2nd Rangers batallion landed on the shingle shore at the bottom of the cliff. Their mission was to climb up the cliff and to destroy the six 155mm guns.

The Rangers climbed up the cliff under heavy fire and loads of grenades. Supported by the destroyers, they succeeded in reaching the top and first discovered empty gun emplacements. During the bombardment they had taken the guns and hid them, replacing them with tree trunks that made it look like the guns were in the emplacements. Later, a patrol discovered guns hidden in an orchard 800 meters further inland and destroyed them. Rudder's men, who had been left on their own, repelled many attacks for two days. When the troops coming from Omaha finally met them, only 90 of them could still fight.

Today