France Trip Day 10: La Cambe German War Cemetery

Our last stop of the day would be to one of the five German war cemeteries in Normandy. The sign in front of the cemetery reads as follows:
The German Cemetery at La Cambe: In the Same Soil of France
Until 1947, this was an American cemetery. The remains were exhumed and shipped to the United States. It has been German since 1948, and contains over 21,000 graves. With its melancholy rigour, it is a graveyard for soldiers not all of whom had chosen either the cause or the fight. They too have found rest in our soil of France.

Our guidebook told us to expect to see visitors here speaking in hushed German. Every one we saw spoke French.

The somber atmosphere at this cemetery is very different from the atmosphere of overwhelming gratitude at the American cemetery.

There were two or three soldiers for every marker. So many were for unidentified soldiers. This marker reads "Three German soldiers."

This tumulus, or burial mound, marks the resting place for 207 unknown and 89 identified German soldiers, interred together in a mass grave.

Statues of a man and a woman mourning their lost family look out over the graves.

The majority of the German war dead buried at La Cambe fell between June 6th and August 20th 1944 and their ages range from 16 to 72.

James asked us one point during the day, "Didn't the Germans feel bad during the war that they were on the bad side?" "But James, that's the problem with war," we replied. "Everyone thinks their side is the good side.

Looking at the very large book of names of the fallen

Less than two months after our visit, German and US soldiers stood side by side at this cemetery during a commemoration ceremony on June 5, 2009. Former bitter enemies during the D-Day invasion of France shared stories and moments of silence, joining together to honor those who perished in the epochal World War II beach landings.

They held their poignant, low-key ceremony at La Cambe a day before an international commemoration nearby to mark 65 years since Allied forces landed on Normandy's shores.

After most visitors to the ceremony left that day, a few dozen stayed on in a corner of the cemetery, where a German pastor and a few soldiers buried the remains of an unidentified German soldier discovered last year. His remains had been found at a secret German gun battery that was only discovered a few years ago.

Finding a soldier's remains is not uncommon in Normandy. Last year, the remains of 12 soldiers were found. This year, so far, there have been three.

We packed the kids up and for a long time drove in silence as we made our way to Paris.

France Trip Day 10: Pointe du Hoc Ranger Monument

Pointe du Hoc ended up being our favorite stop of the day.

This was the German's most heavily fortified position along the coast. For the American landings to succeed, the Allies determined that it was essential to take out this cliffside German battery, which could punish American forces attempting to land at Utah and Omaha beaches.

The area had been bombed by the Allies several times before June 6th, and then again that morning before American troops arrived. Then, 225 hand-picked U.S. Army Rangers attempted a castle-style assault of the German-occupied cliffs, using grappling hooks and ladders borrowed from London fire departments.

What the almost 100-foot high cliffs look like from the water.

Ninety Rangers were killed or severely wounded during the vertical assault. After finally succeeding in the first part of their task, the Rangers learned that the German guns they had come to neutralize had been moved back, but still posed a threat. The Rangers located and destroyed them. The taking of this jutting cliff was important to securing the safe landing of American forces.

The costliest part of the battle for the Rangers came after the cliff assault. Determined to hold the vital ground, yet isolated from other assault forces, they fended off several German counterattacks over the next two days, until reinforced from Omaha Beach. At the end of the 2-day action, the initial Ranger landing force of 225 was reduced to about 90 men who could still fight.

This battle-scarred area on the left flank of Omaha Beach remains much as the Rangers left it, with bomb craters and scattered pieces of fortification.

The first time James asked to run down and back up a crater like other kids were doing, I said no. It seemed...disrespectful. But it became apparent very quickly that children do this all the time, many were doing it today, and so climbing around in the craters and on pieces of fortification fell into my "striking juxtaposition" take on the day.

Walking toward the observation post.

The landscape is often described as being "lunar-like."

Looking back in the direction of Omaha Beach

Rebecca

Touring the observation post

A long-range cannon sight

The Ranger "Dagger" is a monument erected by the French to honor the Rangers and their commander Lieutenant Colonel James E. Rudder. The monument consists of a simple granite pylon positioned atop a German concrete bunker with tablets at its base inscribed in French and English.

James investigating a bunker

Children were all having a great time running around and climbing on the debris. But, the American Battle Monuments Commission does not allow picnicking on the grounds and reminded us that the bombed out bunkers are considered gravesites.

France Trip Day 10: Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery

Our next stop was the WWII Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial and Omaha Beach. Exiting our minivan, I took note of the license plates of the cars near ours: France, Belgium, Ireland, United Kingdom, Italy, among others.

Emilie reading over the guidelines for the Cemetery. They include: No picnicking, no pets, no food or drink, no sitting on the grass and no running, playing or other boisterous conduct.

It wouldn't take long for us to be reprimanded by a park official.

Before entering the cemetery area, we waited for David here, in front of the Visitor Center, on what we thought were long benches. David had gone in to get a brochure on the cemetery, after he passed through a metal detector and waited while others had their bags searched. An official stopped to inform us that we were not allowed to sit there. They were not benches after all. I guess I'd rather be reprimanded for that rather than for boisterous behavior at this cemetery.

We first walked along a path that took us to a bluff overlooking Omaha Beach, called "that embattled shore -- portal of freedom." It was here that the Americans established their first road inland, but at a terrible cost.

Our weather today couldn't have been more different than that on June 6, 1944.

In rough seas, troops approach the beach.

What were they thinking during that time?

David and I have said to each other several times in the past that we didn't understand the mindset it must have taken to survive this day, in particular what it took to exit the landing craft and run across the beach. I don't think I could have placed one foot in front of the other, I would have been so paralyzed with fear.

The Americans began building their own mulberry harbor the next day. Three days after the harbor became operational, the worst storm to hit Normandy in 40 years began to blow, raging for three days and not abating until the night of June 22. The harbor was so completely wrecked that the decision was taken not to repair it; supplies being subsequently landed directly on the beach until fixed port facilities were captured. Over the 100 days following D-Day more than 1,000,000 tons of supplies, 100,000 vehicles and 600,000 men were landed, and 93,000 casualties were evacuated, via Omaha Beach.

The cemetery covers 172 acres, and contains the remains of 9,387 American military dead, most of whom were killed during the invasion of Normandy and ensuing military operations in World War II. Included are graves of Army Air Force crews shot down over France as early as 1942.

The grave of Preston T. Niland. The Niland Brothers were four American brothers from Tonawanda, New York, serving in the military during World War II. Of the four, two survived the war, but for a time it was believed that only one, Frederick Niland, had survived. Frederick was sent back to the United States to complete his service, and only later learned that his brother Edward, presumed dead, was actually captive in a Japanese POW camp in Burma. Steven Spielberg's film Saving Private Ryan is loosely based on the brothers' story.

The grave of Robert J. Niland. Forty-one sets of brothers are buried here, including two sons of President Theodore Roosevelt. Quentin Roosevelt was killed in aerial combat over France during WWI at the age of 20. Theodore Roosevelt Jr. also served in WWI and re-enlisted prior to the beginning of the U.S.'s participation in WWII. He suffered from health problems (arthritis, mostly from old World War I injuries, and heart trouble.) One month after landing at Utah Beach, he died of a heart attack in France at the age of 56.

The Chapel in the middle of all the headstones

Its mosaic ceiling depicts America blessing her sons as they depart by sea and air, and a grateful France bestowing a laurel wreath upon the American dead.

James reading a note left by a high school student who had researched this soldier's life before visiting the cemetery. There are 149 Stars of David here.

The Memorial, behind which is the Garden of the Missing, with the names of 1,557 soldiers who were never found.

The 22-foot statue is called "The Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves."

The graves face westward, towards the United States.

The Allies, especially the Americans, were dreading the reception of the local population to the D-Day invasion. Stuffed full of propaganda, hadn't the vast majority accepted Pétain, the puppet leader of German-controlled France? And how could they forgive the bombing, the death and destruction? Between 15,000 and 20,000 French civilians were killed in Normandy, mainly as a result of Allied bombing. Thousands more fled their homes to escape the fighting.

The response was beyond even the most optimistic predictions. The Normans, like the Mayor of Colleville pictured here, welcomed their liberators with joy and gratitude.

France Trip Day 10: German Gun Battery

A 10-minute drive to the west and we were at the Longues-sur-Mer German Gun Battery. Four German bunkers with guns intact, 300 yards inland, were arranged in a semicircle to maximize the firing range east and west, and are the only original guns remaining in place in the D-Day region.

The guns could fire up to 13 miles at great accuracy and were a major obstacle to the landings at Omaha and Gold beaches.

Ammunition storage bunker

This tobruk would have housed a mortar. It sits on the dirt road right near the firing command post and was used in defense of the complex.

300 meters in front of the battery, directly on the bluff's edge, sits the firing command post. It's actually dug into the cliff's edge and is comprised of two stories.

The ground floor houses the observation post with a crenel (frontal gap) with about a 180 degree angle of view.

It also has a map room, telephone exchange, and sleeping quarters for the gun crew.

The upper floor would have housed the telemetry post (an optical device used to determine the range to a target.) The roof, supported by four steel posts, is 70cm thick. The battery surrendered to the British on June 7th.