Pegasus Bridge

 

I just realized when I made the collage it cut off some parts of the pictures. We really did a better job of taking pictures!

I will have to ask Zach more about this to make sure I am right, but I believe this bridge was kind of the start of the invasion. Gliders landed and paratroopers too and the first house liberated is a coffee house across the water. The orignal bridge was removed at some point not too far away so a museum could be built. There are tanks and a glider there as well. We lucked out and got to see the bridge open for a boat to get through. It was really cool to watch! There is a little trail that has little memorials for the gliders that landed. One hit the water and the pilot drowned. The first death of the invasion took place here on the bridge too I believe. I'll ask Zach to be sure.

Canadian Cemetery

This is a Candadian cemetery we had on our list of things to see. We actually had planned to see it the next day, but our GPS was really good at taking us off the beaten path! In the process of trying to get back to where we knew we came across it! Each grave marker has the maple leaf on it and there were maple trees planted around the cemetery. It was small, but still a nice place to honor those from Canada that lost their lives in the invasion.

German Cemetery

 

This was a German Cemetery we had on our list to visit. It has over 20,000 burried and approx 13,000 are unknown graves. Dog tags were used to identify soldiers, but the Germans didn't put two tags on each chain like the Americans and other countries. So they would pull off the tag to notify family, but then the body was left unidentified. In a way this is very sad. Each grave marker has two names on it as well and then there are lines of trees with names of soldiers whose remains were not found. It was very humbling to visit this cemetery and see that those who died even on the German side are still being cared for today. The Germans do not provide funding for the upkeep of their cemeteries so it is not uncommon to see school children cleaning and caring for the flowers and grass. Donations by locals are used to pay for things so it is done very differently. Still these dead are honored and it was something I am glad we didn't miss.

Pointe du Hoc

This is a little slide show I put together for Pointe du Hoc. Zach was telling me some of the story. I guess there were rather large guns on top of this cliff that needed to be taken out. The 2nd Ranger Battalion had the task of scaling the 100 foot cliffs while under fire to take out the guns. Once on top they found the guns had been moved further back, but were still met with a number of Germans not willing to give up the spot. The ground is still scarred and wavy from the bombings and attacks that took place. It was amazing to look out and wonder what it was like to climb to the top while be shot at! The view is breath taking, but to think so many lives were lost it is also very sad.

Aromanches and Gold Beach

I was going to try and put the pictures in order of how we saw things, but it's getting too complicated and I am losing my mind! So I am now just trying to make sure I get something from each place instead! This is in the town of Aromanches that lies along Gold beach. After storming the beaches they had to get more equipment on land so built these docks. When the tide is out you can walk up to the ones closest to land, but unfortunately we hit it during high tide!

Normandy American Cemetery and Omaha Beach

 

This is a beautiful cemetery! It has 9,387 military who died during the D-Day invasion. It sits on a cliff overlooking Omaha Beach and the English Channel. There are also 1,557 names enscribed on a memorial for those that remains were not found to be burried. President Theodore Rooselvelt has two sons burried here as well. Clinton Roosevelt was a pilot killed in WWI. His brother Theodore Roosevelt Jr was a Brigadere General killed in WWII. They brought Clinton from a WWI cemetery to lay next to his brother. There are also two brothers that died a day apart that lay side by side. The mother was notified on the same day of their deaths. A third son was captured and later released. A fourth son was sent home. These were the brothers that inspired the movie Saving Private Ryan although their last name was Niland.

The beach has some old German bunkers you can explore. There are some memorials and trails you can take up to the cemetery. The boys had fun playing in the water....well Tyler and Ryan did. I am not sure Cody did. The beaches were not his favorite thing. We collected a bottle of sand and some shells. We did this for each beach.

Home away from home

I am trying to mix this up a bit so it's not collage after collage or slide show after slide show! We did so much in this short trip and I want to share as many pictures as I can so it will take me a few days to get it all organized. These are the only two pictures we have of our humble abode. We have stayed in these little mobil homes before, but this was the smallest one. Still it is better to have than just a plain hotel room with a tiny fridge. The kids love the bunk beds when we stay in these and always want to stay longer. We got to swim once, the other days we were just too busy and the pool closed by the time we got back. This was after the first day so you can see we learned to be better with our sunblock!