Our first stop on the day was Pegasus Bridge. Originally called the Bénouville Bridge after the neighbouring village, Pegasus Bridge is a road crossing over the Caen Canal, between Caen and Ouistreham. The original bridge, built in 1934, is now a war memorial and is the centrepiece of the Memorial Pegasus museum at nearby Ranville. The memorial here is dedicated to the men of the 6th British Airborne Division who were the first liberators to arrive in Normandy shortly after midnight on 6th June 1944. The following is from Wikipedia:
On 6 June 1944,
during the Second World War, the bridge was, along with the nearby Ranville
Bridge over the Orne River (another road crossing, later renamed Horsa Bridge),
the objective of members of D Company, 2nd (Airborne) Battalion, Oxfordshire
and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, a glider-borne force who were part of the
6th Airlanding Brigade of the 6th Airborne Division during Operation Deadstick,
itself part of Operation Tonga in the opening minutes of the Allied invasion of
Normandy. Under the command of Major
John Howard, D Company was to land close by the bridges in six AS 51 Horsa
gliders and, in a coup-de-main operation, take both intact and hold them until
relieved by the main British invasion forces. The successful capture of the bridges played
an important role in limiting the effectiveness of a German counter-attack in
the aftermath of the Normandy invasion.
Later in 1944, the Bénouville Bridge was renamed
Pegasus Bridge in honour of the operation. The name is derived from the shoulder emblem
worn by the British Parachute Regiment which depicts Bellerophon riding the
flying horse Pegasus.
We considered going through the
visitor centre here but it looked pretty simplistic so we took a few photos of
the grounds of the centre and also some of the bridge itself.
Our next stop was Juno Beach where the Canadian Museum is located not far from Coursuelles sur Mer. The first time I had tried to visit it many years ago, it was closed. Since then, a new one has been built so I was looking forward to seeing it. However, when we arrived, we found out there had been an electrical fire earlier in the day and it was closed. That was a disappointment and, as it won't be reopened until after we leave, I will miss it again. We still got to wander around the outside displays and, of course, see Juno Beach.
After our visit to Juno Beach, we headed west toward Colleville where the US military cemetery and memorial is. It was quite different from what I remember when I was last here. I had seen a memorial on the beach - shards of metal in the sand - but that didn't appear to be there anymore or, if it is, I didn't see a sign indicating where it is. However, I did find a photo of it on the Internet, much like the one I took the last time I was here. I am disappointed that we missed it this time, assuming it is still there.
The photos below are ones I took of Omaha Beach and the US Military Cemetery grounds this time.
One interesting thing about our visit to this site, and remember we have been to numerous British, Canadian, French and Belgian memorials on this trip honouring the sacrifices from both World Wars, was the level of security at the US Memorial at Colleville. It was the only one where there was a security check like you would see in an airport; further, there were armed guards at the entrance to the Visitor Center. What seemed a bit ironic, however, was that you could visit any other part of the grounds (the beach, the cemetery and the memorial) without undergoing the same scrutiny. So, I sort of wonder what that was all about.
Following our visit to Omaha, we were "done" for the day. it is very draining seeing all these places. Without any intent of being disrespectful, it is overwhelming to think thousands and thousands of lives were lost here to protect the freedoms we take for granted.
The house we are renting is right on Gold Beach in Asnelles sur Mer with only a one-way street separating us from the beach. On a sunny day, it looks like any other beautiful sandy beach except for the fact there are still a significant number of various landing craft visible in the water. These are the views of it plus some photos my sister took of them when the tide was out far enough for her to be able to get close to them.
We had still not visited the visitor centre at Gold Beach so on Sunday, Canadian Thanksgiving, we headed about 3 km west toward Arromanches to see that memorial. Arromanches was one of the strategic landings on D-Day because, along with another site further west, the landing craft here were constructed so that, during the D-Day landings, it would be turned into a port so that materiel and soldiers could be brought ashore then and in the future. The port was also known as Port Winston. These are photos from today and one that was taken in June, 1944, on display in the centre.
We agreed that, of the memorials we saw bearing in mind we didn't get to see the Canadian one, this memorial was wonderful. The sculpture and nearby garden (first unveiled at the Royal Chelsea Flower Show in 2019 before being gifted to the people of Arromanches) are very moving. The angled shards evoke the violence that took place and the forms of the attacking soldiers have an eerie ghost-like quality.
The 360' cinema production we saw there was put together from archived footage from American, French, British, Canadian and German sources. It chronicled the D-Day invasion and the subsequent battle to retake Normandy from the Germans. It contained some of the best photos and videos we had seen. Needless to say, some of it, particularly the videos of the soldiers in the landing craft giving a "thumbs up" as they crossed, was very moving.
There was also another movie (which you can view while you are waiting to see the 360' cinema) which we decided was actually better. It takes a detailed look at the 100 days it took for the Allied forces to free Normandy from the German occupation. It ran for over an hour and we returned to watch the full movie after we'd seen the 360' production.
It told the details of the paratroopers who landed on French soil (Brits and Americans) just after midnight on that fateful day, how the soldiers who arrived on Utah were tasked with taking the Carentan peninsula (Cherbourg being the strategic asset that needed to be taken), and how the various other troops retook the region.
The statistics from that time are staggering. This is from an article on the Internet.
The Normandy Invasion consisted of 5,333 Allied ships and landing craft embarking nearly 175,000 men. The British and Canadians put 75,215 troops ashore, and the Americans 57,500, for a total of 132,715, of whom about 3,400 were killed or missing, in contrast to some estimates of ten thousand. The foregoing figures exclude approximately 20,000 Allied airborne troopers. Extensive planning was required to move all these troops.
The U.S. VII Corps sustained 22,119 casualties from 6 June to 1 July, including 2,811 killed, 13,564 wounded, 5,665 missing, and seventy-nine captured.
American personnel in Britain included 1,931,885 land, 659,554 air, and 285,000 naval—a total of 2,876,439 officers and men. While in Britain they were housed in 1,108 bases and camps.
The Allied forces for Operation Overlord comprised twenty-three infantry divisions (thirteen U.S., eight British, two Canadian); twelve armored (five U.S., four British, one each Canadian, French, and Polish); and four airborne (two each U.S. and British)—for a total of twenty American divisions, fourteen British, three Canadian, and one each French and Polish. However, the assault forces on 6 June involved two U.S., two British, and one Canadian division.
Air assets included 3,958 heavy bombers (3,455 operational), 1,234 medium and light bombers (989 operational), and 4,709 fighters (3,824 operational), for 9,901 total and 8,268 operational. Allowing for aircrews, 7,774 U.S. and British Commonwealth planes were available for operations on 6 June, but these figures do not include transports and gliders.
Of the 850,000 German troops awaiting the invasion, many were Eastern European conscripts; there were even some Koreans. There were sixty infantry divisions in France and ten panzer divisions, possessing 1,552 tanks, but not all were combat ready. In Normandy itself the Germans had deployed eighty thousand troops, but only one panzer division.
Approximately fifteen thousand French civilians died in the Normandy campaign, partly from Allied bombing and partly from combat actions of Allied and German ground forces.
Towards the end of the movie, there was a video of the arrival of Charles de Gaulle in Cherbourg after it was liberated. It showed him being given the French flag by the Americans. It was after that when he made his very inspirational speech to the French people.
While the war did not end for over another year, a foothold on the continent had been made.
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