Day #60 - D-Day Beaches of Normandy

End Result - Death tolls

Fourth - ground attack

Third - parachuters sent in

Second - planes were sent to drop bombs

First - boats were sent from the English coast

Thursday, May 13th

Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, Sword (under orders gi's jump ship). Sometimes I use phrases to remember things. This phrase just came to me. I've been thinking how I could remember this all day. Do you like it? I like it alot - I'll tell you why later.

What do these 5 words mean? To some, absolutely nothing. To others (like me), maybe it jogs memories of your history class. Still others, these words bring back some pretty strong emotions. These are the code-names for the 5 beaches stormed by the Ally forces on June 6, 1944 - better known as D-Day.

I'm currently in the city of Caen, France - about 3 hours northwest of Paris. I arrived late last night. I'll say from the start - today was just an appetizer for what I hope to do tomorrow. In France, today was a national holiday - Ascension Thursday. Most of the buses and trains had very limited running schedules. This made my travels extrememly difficult and I wasn't able to make it to the coastline.

I came to this location because I've always had interest in history. I probably know more about WWII than any other war. I'm not sure why. I gues I've always had an interest in this war. So many things involved. Good guys like: Churchill, Roosevelt. Bad guys like: Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo. Names like: Nazis, Holocaust, Jews, Pearl Harbor. And then there is D-Day.

Normandy is an area of France. The beaches of Normandy stretch out over 50+ miles. Starting from Utah and Omaha on the southern front - where the American troops were stationed, to Gold (British), Juno (Canadian), and finally Sword (British) on the northern most beach. D-Day was just the start of the battle of Normandy. It took a few more months before the Allies were able to successfully push back the Nazis of Germany.

I started the morning off by going to the Caen Memorial Museum. There are 26+ museums all over Normandy which remember the D-Day events. The Caen Memorial is one of the more publicized museums. I spent several hours walking around. They spent alot of time in the museum telling the story of what actually led up to D-Day. I really enjoyed this. It helped bring back a bunch of memories and get me into the frame of mind before seeing the beaches themselves.

When I decided to head toward Omaha Beach, no trains or buses could get me there. I was frustrated, so fired up to see these - but it wasn't to be today. That's OK - tomorrow is another day. There's a number of memorials on the coastline, the US cemetary, etc. Just seeing this site is bound to mean something.

Earlier when I said - "Under orders gi's jump ship" - this was a take on how the soldiers themselves must have felt that day. I've read books to the effect that they didn't know exactly what was going to happen, they were seasick from the boat ride from England, and then BAM! - you're getting shot at from all directions. You jump into the water ready for battle. That's truly amazing. These guys are heroes in every since of the word. I gotta think that I would have been brave enough to be right there, but who knows.

After spending about 4 hours or so at the Caen Memorial, I just decided to come back to the hotel and rest up. Tomorrow morning I'll take an early train out and then a bus to the beaches. A car would go along way. If I had one, I would drive along the whole coastline. I'll have to see what I can do with buses and my feet. I've been winging things alot on this trip - I need to perform tomorrow.