Omaha Beach – Laurie Apgar Chandler

Six years ago, we arrived too late in the day to visit the American cemetery, and I cried. Today, I cried once more. Here are interred the remains of 9,387 Americans, including four women. By the end of the campaign for Normandy, the Allied dead there would number more than 50,000.

On the eve of D-Day, General Eisenhower sent to each of the soldiers, sailors, and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force a letter of encouragement from which I have taken the title of this post. How difficult it must have been for him to send forth so many young men into such great danger. Eisenhower spent that last evening with the men of the 101st Airborne and stayed until the planes had all disappeared into the dark night.

Anilore Banon’s uplifting sculpture Les Braves, on Omaha Beach

This small remnant of the many tons of metal that littered the beach was padlocked in place.

Envisioning the chaos and carnage of 80 years ago amid the beauty of today.

I collected a delicate, perfect seashell (as I had at Utah Beach) to add to our jar of seaglass back home. From here, we drove to the top of the 90-foot cliffs at Pointe du Hoc, where Army Rangers once achieved the impossible, under fire.

Map of Pointe de Hoc, showing the 50-minute walk that Lance completed, in addition to navigating the seawall, beach, and later the cemetery, more than 10,000 steps for the day.

The walk toward the point weaves among countless impact craters left by Naval artillery

An Army Ranger of today pays his respects at The Dagger, a memorial gift from the French

Inside the observation bunker at the tip of Pointe du Hoc, a maze of rooms with a narrow gap toward the sea through which the Germans could shoot and keep watch

Looking down from above at Pointe du Hoc

Sergeant Walter Geldon, Company C, 2nd Ranger Battalion

The Normandy sites come alive through many personal stories, though tens of thousands will forever remain untold. Here is just one: “June 6, 1944 was Sergeant Geldon’s third wedding anniversary. He and his fellow Rangers sang songs to celebrate the occasion shortly before landing on Omaha Beach. The 23-year-old steel worker from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was cut down by enemy fire within a few minutes of coming ashore. When his widow died in 2002 at age 78, she was buried by his side.”

Temporary building and staging being installed for 80th anniversary celebrations

There are ups and downs to being here now, as June 6th fast approaches. An unbelievable number of active and retired military, as well as a stunning array of vintage Jeeps and other Army vehicles have gathered. The spirit of anticipation and brotherhood are at their highest. However, much of the American cemetery was blocked off, including the main memorial visible in the opening photo, with its soaring statue representing American youth. We never learned if there were open sections toward the back where you could walk among the graves. Thus, we were very grateful to find the Garden of the Missing open and paid our respects amid its tranquil beauty.

Inscribed around the Garden of the Missing are 1,557 names of American soldiers and sailors whose remains were lost. All the Army panels include multiple names from the 66th Infantry Division. 483 of the lost were never recovered from the English Channel when a torpedo sank their troopship *Leopoldville* on Christmas Eve 1944.

A bronze rosette indicates a soldier whose remains were later recovered. This panel also includes one of the lost from Maine, most of whom were in the U.S. Navy section.

Lance searched diligently for names of soldiers from his combat engineer company, the 307th, part of the 82nd Airborne Division. Sadly, two were lost and never recovered.

The story of the day would not be complete without mentioning our brush with the gendarmerie. At what appeared to be a random police checkpoint, Lance briefly considered making a run for it in our Range Rover (thinking of the movie The French Connection) when an officer waved him in. Better judgement prevailed, though, and after a very careful scrutiny of Lance’s driver’s license, we were free to go find lunch. We did not observe a single other vehicle get pulled in. On a lighter note, rambling the countryside has surely been a highlight, knowing that the churches, stone houses with their tile roofs and flower draped walls, even the hedgerows, must be little changed from 1944.

P1010601

Men would have to come to France by sea, and many would have to die.

It was simply a question of where to land and when. Tens of thousands of lives depended on finding the best answer. At the Musée Memorial 1944 Bataille de Normandie, which we visited in Bayeux, it was sobering to learn that an entire department of the military was fully prepared to handle all the fallen soldiers before the first had even landed.

P1010594

Two alternative plans were considered for Operation Overlord, the initial sea-borne invasion that would liberate France. The first, crossing the Pas-de-Calais, where Great Britain and France lie closest, seemed intuitive. There, in northeast France near Belgium, the Allies would be far closer to friendly air support and supplies, and within striking distance of the heart of Germany. The strait, though, was heavily defended.

The beaches of Lower Normandy, forever memorialized now with the simple code names Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword, were also well protected,. There were mines, physical obstacles (Dad stands by one above), and artillery batteries hidden in bunkers. But there was also a weakness. If the bridges across the Seine and the Loire were destroyed, the German troops would be cut off from reinforcements. So, on June 6, 1944, the Allies cast the die there.

P1010619

This museum’s focus was the entire battle for Normandy, up until the liberation of Paris in late August 1944. I wish we had more carefully researched which museum to visit. The town of Bayeux was a good choice for us, though, as we also saw the Bayeux tapestry, part of a future post. We opted for a quick lunch in town, ham and cheese crepes with some of the fabulous Normandy cider, then returned to the museum for the English showing of their film, which did not even include any footage of the beach landings.

P1010604

At the museum, the woman at the information desk grew very emotional as she told me that veterans still often return to visit the area. I was moved, too by the photos of town after town where homes and churches were reduced to rubble.

My greatest wish had been to visit one or more military cemeteries. In fact, I’d seen a documentary about German cemeteries still carefully tended by the French. So it was a huge disappointment to arrive at the American cemetery near Omaha Beach literally as the entrance gates swung shut, 15 minutes before the posted closing time. Almost crying, I was tempted to try to wiggle through the ornate gate that barred the way, but didn’t.

P1010634

Today, Omaha Beach looks much like any other beach, even down to the running children and lipstick-pink umbrellas. This sculpture, called Les Braves, was commissioned for the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings. What happened there may seem invisible, but after a visit to France, I know that it is not forgotten.

Someday I will come back, to walk among the headstones of the fallen soldiers and pay my respects. After finding our hotel in Saint-Malo, one of an excellent chain called Ibis Style, we enjoyed our best dinner yet at a harborside restaurant called Le Spinnaker.

P1010645