Hard to believe yet I woke after a reasonable night's sleep and the sky was blue and the sun shining.
Today, Omaha Beach.
First off the American Cemetery at Omaha , overlooking the beach, rows upon rows of white crossed with the occasional Star of David interspersed..
The Niland brothers lie side by side, with grass in front heavily trodden. They were the brothers whose death and story inspired "Finding Private Ryan".
There was also Theodore Roosevelt, son of Teddy, I think who died of a heart attack and won the Medal of Honour!!
From a cemetery to a church at Saint Mere Englise where a US Airborne became suspended on the church bell tower. He is still there in effigy, however, never let the truth get in the way of a good tourism opportunity, he is now on the corner overlooking the square, not the one over looking the fields
They also had a great museum with a glider and C37 (DC3) with a very good collection of uniforms and equipment.
From there to the varius causeways the US Airborne needed to capture to deny German reinforcements getting to the Cherbourg Peninsular.
We finished with the battery at Point Du Hoc, made famous in "The Longest day" involving the US Rangers climbing the cliffs to get to the guns.
They are a pretty impressive piece of German slave labour construction, that were unable to withstand the might of off shore bombardment and airborn assault both by bombing and direct attack. The bomb craters are still very much in evidence.
By this time it had started to rain, again.
Back to the hotel and the end of this part of the trip.
Now to Paris
Picasa albums
Today, Omaha Beach.
First off the American Cemetery at Omaha , overlooking the beach, rows upon rows of white crossed with the occasional Star of David interspersed..
The Niland brothers lie side by side, with grass in front heavily trodden. They were the brothers whose death and story inspired "Finding Private Ryan".
There was also Theodore Roosevelt, son of Teddy, I think who died of a heart attack and won the Medal of Honour!!
From a cemetery to a church at Saint Mere Englise where a US Airborne became suspended on the church bell tower. He is still there in effigy, however, never let the truth get in the way of a good tourism opportunity, he is now on the corner overlooking the square, not the one over looking the fields
They also had a great museum with a glider and C37 (DC3) with a very good collection of uniforms and equipment.
From there to the varius causeways the US Airborne needed to capture to deny German reinforcements getting to the Cherbourg Peninsular.
We finished with the battery at Point Du Hoc, made famous in "The Longest day" involving the US Rangers climbing the cliffs to get to the guns.
They are a pretty impressive piece of German slave labour construction, that were unable to withstand the might of off shore bombardment and airborn assault both by bombing and direct attack. The bomb craters are still very much in evidence.
By this time it had started to rain, again.
Back to the hotel and the end of this part of the trip.
Now to Paris
Picasa albums
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