Normandy

 Honfleur, France

May 3, 2025

“At the core, the American citizen soldiers knew the difference between right and wrong, and they didn’t want to live in a world in which wrong prevailed. So, they fought and won, and we, all of us, living and yet to be born, must be forever profoundly grateful.” — Stephen Ambrose, Citizen Soldiers

It has been over a year since we visited the beaches of Normandy. (Again, I'm sorry for the hiatus, but sometimes, life intervenes.) But even with the passage of time, the profound experience of our day in France lingers in my soul. 

The visit began with a lovely drive through the French countryside, green and cool. After the arid countries we'd been in, it was a rest for my color-starved eyes. As you'll see in the photo montage the DH has put together, the homes we passed were charming and well-tended. And to my surprise, many of the private homes flew both French and US flags. As an American I felt unwelcome in Spain. Here, I was deeply touched by the way the French remembered and honored our past sacrifice for them. 

We spent an extended time in a DDay museum at Arrowmanches, learning about the man-made harbor the clever Allied engineers assembled with lightning speed the day after the blood-soaked, but successful landing. Some of the rusting skeletons of the floating docks still dot the coastline. 

The thing that amazed me was that this undertaking had to be planned and launched on the heels of fighting men, without knowing whether or not the landing would succeed.

7000 vessels, 12000 aircraft, paratroopers dropping behind the German lines the night before, over 160,000 men and tons of supplies all converging in a short two days--how the Allies kept the invasion a secret amazed me. Clearly, it could never have happened today in the era of satellite coverage and a 24/7 news cycle. 

No absolute data on the number of the fallen can be compiled, but it's estimated that 2400 Americans died on Omaha Beach alone. 

After our time at the beach, we had a light lunch in a nearby bistro. Then it was time to pay our respects at the American Cemetery at Colleville-Sur-Mer, the final resting place for so many of those who gave their lives on the very beach the cemetery overlooks--"Bloody Omaha."

Solemn, sorrow-drenched, yet surreally beautiful, it is the sort of place where no one has to remind you to speak in hushed tones, if at all. The long rows of crosses interspersed with Stars of David see to that. A cleansing breath of wind in the pines whispered of a far better land to come, a place where no evil can stand.