The Berridges: The Longest Day

(Again, please remember that this is being "posted" on July 11th) :)

The title of this blog is not necessarily a reflection on this portion of our trip... it is instead a bit of a tribute to this excursion by using the title of one of the more famous movies made about the D-Day landings at Normandy.

Last night Beth and I rented a car so that we would be able to make the day trip to the beaches of Normandy. I was most nervous about driving in Paris. We planned on leaving our hotel so early this morning so we picked up our car late last night. That meant that I had to drive it back to our hotel in the heart of Paris... YIKES! If we hadn't had some GPS support, we would probably still be driving around trying to find our way back to our hotel. Those GPS machines are amazing.... I really don't know how we would have found our way around without the one that Dustin and Amanda let us borrow.

The only problem with them is that they don't always pick the best route... Sarah (as ours has been named) led us to our hotel by taking us down the Champs Elysees (the busiest and most famous street in Paris) and around the Arc du Triomph where twelve streets converge into one ginormous traffic circle. To make it even a little more fun, it was dark and Paris drivers don't believe in obeying traffic laws. If you are in their way, then they just go around you, whether it is their turn to go or not. I was in the right turn lane and someone from behind me (on several occasions) whipped around me to get in front of me.

After we got back to the hotel, we really wished that we had filmed the trip through town as it would have made for some good laughs later. The only problem was that I needed Beth to watch "Sarah" and navagate for me so we wouldn't make a wrong turn.

We left the hotel at 7:00 am this morning for Normandy. We arrived at the Visitors' Center and Cemetary at around 10:00. It is a very well put together visitors' center (it's more of a museum, really) and we spent probably 3 hours in it before we exited into the cemetery. The visitors' center had three main themes - Competence, Courage, and Sacrifice and each was given a substantial amount information with which to unfold.

After touring the visitors' center, we walked out to the cemetary. The cemetery is the permanent resting place for 9,387 of our military heroes, most of whom died during the landings on the beach on June 6, 1944. Click here for a great intro to give you a taste of what we saw: http://media.oaktreesys.com/abmc/video/normandy_promo.wmv

It was a virtual sea of white crosses. On the cemetary grounds is a chapel and several other symbolic monuments. It is nestled adjacent to Omaha beach where most of the American casualties came on the morning of the D-Day landings. I was particularly moved by General Mark W. Clark's statement, "If ever proof were needed that we fought for a cause and not for conquest, it would be found in these cemeteries. Here was our only conquest: all we asked... was enough soil in which to bury our gallant dead."

When we went down to Omaha Beach and walked where so many young men died for their country, it was hard to imagine the brutal fighting that went on there as now it is a very beautiful, peaceful, and serene place. Fortunately we caught the beach at low tide, so it gave us a very realistic view of what the soldiers would have seen since they landed at low tide to avoid the traps set by the Germans. There was so much beach to cover in order to get to any kind of safety from the enemy fire. There was nowhere to hide.

We then travelled a couple of miles along the coastline to Pointe du Hoc. This was the point that allowed German fighters to rain fire down on both Utah and Omaha Beaches since it overlooked both beaches, so it was a priority to take out the defenses here. The US Army Rangers were equipped to scale the sheer 100 ft. cliffs, but as you can imagine were slaughtered in the process while trying to gain the higher ground. They eventually scaled the cliffes and fought the Germans for 2 1/2 days before relief arrived. By this time the Rangers were only left with 90 combat-effective men out of the original 225.

Pointe du Hoc looks today as it did on D-Day with impact craters and bunkers. It has not been restored in any way. Some of the bunkers were the recipients of direct his from Allied Battleships, so they have been totally destroyed. There is now a monument in the shape of the Rangers' dagger having been plunged deep into the ground to commemorate this achievement.

This was by far the most moving experience for the both of us on this trip. I wouldn't say we had a "good time," but this experience is a MUST for any patriot. This day alone would have been worth the trip overseas.

On our way out, we stopped at a German WWII Cemetery. It is much more subdued with two soldiers to each headstone and 5 black crosses in periodic groups around the cemetery. It is definitely lacking the hope and purpose of the US Cemetery. It was actually pretty depressing.

"Tomorrow," we will head to Versailles, Napoleon's tomb, and the Arc du Triomph.

Brett and Beth