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| American Cemetery, April 2007 |
Bob and I visited the beaches of Normandy during a 2007 trip to France. The April morning was overcast and rain was falling lightly, with mist obscuring the beach when we first arrived at the American cemetery.
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| Photo: D-Day Museum, Arromanches |
This is American soil now, very peaceful and reverent. The crosses and stars of David stand in symmetry under the Norman sky, in the shadow of the flags that fly so proudly in honor of those who landed here in the summer of 1944 and the many who died in this foreign land.
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HMS Northern Pride - converted trawler used in D-Day Landing
Photo by John Abbott |
The experience was made all the more poignant when we learned out that John Abbott, one of our tour companions, was in that harbor as an 18-year-old sailor on D-Day, very much in harm's way, a real live hero in our midst. In his self-deprecating British way, he denied any heroism -- but there he was, a young kid in charge of radio operations, positioned above a magazine, never expecting to survive that dreadful day. He had joined the Navy because he "liked the uniform".
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| Arromanches - April 2007 |
We toured the D-Day Museum in the village of Arromanches, where evidence of the prefabricated harbor is still in the bay, a reminder of the engineering brilliance that gave the Allies a harbor in an area where all harbors were under German control. The harbor was a key component of the infrastructure created for the invasion of Europe.
I didn't realize until we went to Normandy that the march to Paris was a very long one, and that so many obstacles lay between the landing and the end of the war. The Normans have vowed to preserve those memories forever, in grateful tribute.
