Mom and Dad Visit and Normandy Trip

What a great 2 weeks. Jeff's mom and dad came for a visit. We toured some local German sites, ate schnitzel, drank delicious beers from the local monasteries, spent an afternoon in Bernkastel and took a cruise on the Mosel River in Reisling wine country. Because Jeff had to work the first week, Mom and Dad took a 4 day trip to Paris. They had a bad start--some bum snatched Dad's wallet and took all his money. He dropped the wallet, and no one was hurt, so it could have been so much worse. After that, they took in all the usual sites, like the Louvre and Musee D' Orsay. They travelled back and forth on the high speed train that goes 300km per hour, or about 188mph!

Mom didn't know we wear Lederhosen (Bunderhosen actually pictured) everyday:



We started the 8 hour drive to Normandy with a break in Bastogne, Belgium, to look at the museum and memorial to the Americans who held out over Christmas 1944, thwarting the entire German counter-offensive, known as "The Battle of the Bulge." If you remember, this is the town in the Ardennes forest, where after being surrounded by the Germans, the American commander, General McAuliffe, sent his famous response to surrender demands: "NUTS!!" We enjoyed the visit and drove on to Asnieres en Bessin on the Normandy coast, just a couple of hedge rows in from Omaha beach.

The house we stayed in was awesome. Built in 1605 as the farm out-buildings behind a huge chateau (still there, too) of a local Count and Countess, it played a part in a secret commando raid in 1942, then housed POWs at the end of the war. Our hosts, Pat and Tony Graves, a semi-retired British couple, are genuinely good people whose company we enjoyed every morning and evening. Tony owned an aircraft museum in the UK and had personally excavated over 400 wrecks from the battle of Britain--a fascinating historian. He took us on a 11 hour tour all over Normandy one day. We stopped at all the major battle areas, plus a dozen little spots made famous in "Saving Private Ryan" and "Band of Brothers." Tony has actually met with and talked to BOB guys, who have taken him to dozens of spots, unmarked but remembered by them, where various fire fights, acts of heroism and significant events occurred. This was an amazing day.

Tony and Pat's Place, Le Fournet http://www.stayomaha.com/ :



We went out for seafood on the first night. Wine and fresh seafood on the beach...not cheap, but sooooo good. Even Katie looks impressed:



The next day, Tony began our tour on Omaha Beach, serene, now, but it is not hard to imagine the chaos, when you stand under the still existing German concrete bunkers and the high bluffs, cutting off the beach from inland. Over 10,000 men fell on this beach on June 6, 1944.



We travelled to Pointe Du Hoc, next, made famous in numerous movies. It is a prominent peninsula jutting out the west side of Omaha Beach, fronted by 100' cliffs, which the rangers climbed to take out the German guns--which turned out to be decoys. The actual guns were moved slightly inland to rain fire onto the beaches. They would be destroyed after heavy losses with thermite grenade charges by 2 Sergeants who found them unattended, camouflaged in a field.

You can see the pounding Pointe Du Hoc had taken form bombers and Battleships. There are hundreds of craters like this. Surprisingly many bunkers survive and you can go in them still.



A badly shattered gun emplacement, Jena foreground, Katie hiding left, Andrew and Maw maw and Paw paw out front.



The people of Normandy suffered tremendous losses, over 20,000 in the landings, but still realize what was sacrificed to free them. This church in Angoville, has a stained glass commemorating the Airborne troops who fought and died here. The church was used as a field hospital and as testament to the fighting, the floors and pews are all blood stained to this day. The parishioners decided to leave them as they are as a memorial. Both American and Germans were treated in the church by 2 American medics, awarded the Silver Star.



Farther inland we toured a complete bunker. It was amazing and amazingly dark inside them! Tony took this pic of the group.



Iron Mike. St Michael is the patron saint of the Airborne and here, near La Fiere, just 3 km from Sainte-Mère-Eglise (famous for the paratrooper hung up on the church steeple), is a statue of "Iron Mike" who represents the men of the Airborne with grenades and Thompson sub-machine gun. He overlooks the bridge of La Fiere, scene of the most desperate fight of the Airborne. The Germans sought to take and destroy the vitally important bridge. They had a large force and tanks. The Airborne, having jumped in, had no armored vehicles, only machine guns and bazookas. Because the bridge was on a causeway through a marsh, the Germans could not do anything but come up the one lane road. The Americans held the bridge, at a cost of nearly every defender, nearly 700 men were lost in a field the size of a pasture, until reinforcements could solidify the position. The Medal of Honor was won twice over on this spot. Standing next to Iron Mike, looking out on this field, and tiny stone bridge is sobering. The Airborne still drops paratroopers, including old veterans (in tandem with a young buck, now) on this field every year on the 6th of June, 64 years later.



We took a brief tour of the American Cemetery. It is beautiful and solemn. It is high on a cliff overlooking the sea. Every cross and Star of David is perfectly aligned, viewed from every angle. We didn't stay long, but came back the next day and spent hours. There is a D-Day museum at the entrance, and it gives a great overview of the invasion as well as individual stories of several of the guys in the cemetery. One turned out to be from Jeff' first fighter squadron, the 77th FS. Over 30,000 Americans died in the invasion and subsequent battle for Normandy; close to 10,000 are here, the rest were taken home according to the families' will.



The house we stayed in was interesting. This room housed German POWs from 1944 to around 1950. Six POWs lived here. Most of the German defenders were conscripted boys; average age of the paratroopers: 17.5. They lost over 77,000 in the invasion and battle for Normandy.



Here, you can see the days, months, years marked down as they were basically used as labor to clean up the war materials in the local area. In October, 1945, just about 1/2 mile outside the town, behind the house, a large explosion (unexploded ordnance collected together in a depot) killed 30 Americans and 45 of these POWs, and partially destroyed the church and surrounding buildings of the town.



Our hosts, Pat and Tony Graves. She made us breakfast every morning. Tony a former Judo master, was hooked on the Olympic Judo competitions in the morning, then regaled us with stories in the evening over wine and scotch.



Overall, this trip was more than we had ever imagined it would be. We even stopped in Bayeux, to see the famous Bayeux Tapestry, which recounts the story of William the Conqueror's rise to power and capture of the English throne. Apparently, other things happened in Normandy before WWII!