Normandy, Part Three

17 April Tuesday

Up and out on our way to Arromanches, a coastal village not far from Bayeux. This was the British landing site at Gold Beach. More importantly, it was one of two sites where artificial harbors were erected. These were absolutely required to continue a logistical flow to the troops once they landed and to enable them to advance with good supply lines in place. These harbors were the brainchild of Churchill who told his staff not to argue about this because the problems would speak for themselves as they arose. Basically, the idea was to sink old ships in a row near the beaches, then sink massive concrete caissons (displacing 6000 tons of water each) inside these breakwaters to form a harbor wall. All of this was built in England and towed across the channel to Omaha and Gold Beaches. This whole outfit weighed over 1.5 million tons, and it consisted of over 400 hundred pieces.

In the space of less than two weeks after D-Day, the harbors were up and running. Then the Fit Hit the Shan, and a huge 3-day storm hit both areas. The Omaha harbor was destroyed, but the one at Arromanches survived to serve as a lifeline for the landed troops. The town’s nickname is now, “Arromanches, Port Winston.”

The D-Day Landing Museum in the town is a good place to learn about all this history, and the movie shown with English headphones makes the whole engineering marvel clear. I came away awed at the possibilities. What if there had been only one harbor and that had been at Omaha? Another Dunkirk or worse could have happened. What if the whole idea had been a bust? It had never been done before. What if the Germans had had the wherewithal to defend and/or destroy the beachhead?

We met a man and his friend (a nice Brit lady) at the museum. He was a long-time visitor and dropped a pearl on us. Apparently, a new German underground bunker has been discovered at a village down the coast. It has opened as a site that was sealed when the Germans left until recently. It was a trip for another day.

Arromanches is like any other seaside resort today. Lots of glitz, restaurants, shops, etc., but our visit was a real revelation in more ways than one.

On down a rural Normandy road, we came to a jewel of a spot, the village of Port-en-Bessin. It was past lunchtime, so we were on the hunt. We parked, and Barbara led me like a dog on a leash to a place she had spotted. La Marie du Port was a find for us. The service was fine, the food delightful, and we came away laughing with the staff. Barbara had a big bowl of steamed mussels (this is a seafood fishing village) followed by a lovely looking piece of skate, some cheese, and a crème brulee that was totally illegal. This cost us 22 Euros. Now for me, I was not so hungry since I had more breakfast, but I decided to have a plate of of what I would call a fisherman’s platter in Newport. I knew that it was not fried because I had seen nothing fried in the place. Here came a tower on which the lower level sits silverware, an oyster fork, a crab pick, a tub of mayonnaise (homemade), and a finger napkin. On the upper level in a bed of seaweed, sits a platter of seafood. 9 raw oysters on the shell of small/medium size, 9 conch in their shells, 2 spiny lobsters, several shrimp of normal size, a dozen tiny shrimp that were the size of peanuts, a half stone crab with body and claw meat with tomaley (eggs/roe), and 9 opened raw clams. With this came lemon wedges, and two bowls for the shells. The sauce for any and all besides the mayo was a vinegar and shallot mixture (I suspect weakened with some white wine). I paid 25 Euros for this “light lunch.”

When we were on our way out to get the car, we found a good place to watch our lunch being sold as it came off the boat. The guy there could shell a scallop like lightening.

Then we took a trip along a rural road right out of “Au Chocolat” to the Normandy American Cemetery at St. Laurent, a few miles down the way. This for me is where it got serious. I remember neighbors in my neighborhood that lost sons. Some who came back for burial and some who were “missing.” A memory is all they have. No grave to visit. There are 172 acres given by the French to house graves of over 9,000 soldiers, of which over 300 are unknown here. The known are marked with names, states, ranks, assignments, and dates of death. Some are even from territories like Hawaii (not a state then). The unknown are simply marked “A Comrade in Arms known but to God”. Christians have a marble cross and Jewish have stars of David (we watched a man moving along cleaning them with a cloth). The two brothers who were the inspiration for the movie “Private Ryan” are here.

I saw two older men wander among a few graves, crying. My eyes were not dry. Some of these men lying here might have become criminals or near do wells. Maybe? But what would have happened to the rest of them? What was wasted? What was lost? What knowledge, what talent, what glory was lost by their deaths? What do the survivors think? Are they guilty because they lived?

It is a beautiful place, and I do not regret a single cent of my tax money to keep it as it is!

We left the cemetery and went to the Omaha Beach memorial. The daylong fog was thinning, and people were all over the beaches walking and riding horses. Lots of kids and young people were out to enjoy themselves. I wonder if they have any inkling of the deaths and destructions that once was here where they play.


18 April Wednesday

The weather opened a beautiful day in contradistinction to our fogged yesterday.

Out this morning to Grandcamp-Maisy, a spot on the coast up the highway from us. This charming port lies between Utah and Omaha Beaches, and is the site of a recently discovered underground German battery that just opened on 1 April. This site was abandoned under a yard of soil in a farm field after the Germans fled or were captured in the face of the liberation forces. A British man whose passion is WW II found some aerial maps near the site and noted its location. He went out to the field and just under the soil found the opening to the underground facility and connecting trenches.

There is a website on this at www.maisybattery.com

We found the tourist office in the village with a nice young lady who spoke very good English and knew exactly where we wanted to go. We found our spot right away and a good story also. The lady at a trailer serving as a ticket office gave us the history of Gary Sterne, the British man who brought this about. She gave us a map to use as we traveled the trenches between the different ruins and gun emplacements. There are bunkers with 9-foot thick reinforced concrete, storehouses of munitions, a field hospital (destroyed by bombs), and several 155 mm Howitzer gun emplacements. All of this was covered and camouflaged but connected by trenches.

After the landings by the British Rangers on 6 June 1944, there ensued a 5-hour battle on 9 June to capture the bunker. This was after the Germans spent the previous 3 days firing at the landing troops on both Utah and Omaha Beaches. The Germans were taken as captives after the seizure of the battery. Then the place was forgotten until now.

Gary Sterne found the site, gradually bought the land (owned by 17 different persons), obtained the permit from the town (the mayor is a person who wants WW II forgotten), and just a few days ago, it opened. It is still unfinished, as about half seems to be remaining undiscovered. It was an interesting visit.

Since Barbara was in a serious seizure of crepe withdrawal, we went back into the village and on the recommendation of our ticket lady friend at the battery. She sent us to a nice spot o the edge of the harbor where we lunched on gallettes; a version of a closed crepe, which was delicious.

After lunch, we strolled along the quay to enjoy the spectacular day. It was soon time to move onward to our destination for the afternoon. We wanted to visit a possible spot for a “Right Vacation” rental. This will be detailed in a piece that Barbara will write.

Then after our visit, we got back to Arromanches to see what the low tide and crystal day would show us of the artificial harbor mentioned earlier in this narrative. It was all one could hope to see and only about 8 miles from our manor home. It was a beautiful site, no museum visit, but lots of yummies to buy for us and friends to take home.

We then went home to watch a DVD of the BBC show “As Time Goes By”, snake bite prophylaxis, and plans for a trip to Mont St. Michel tomorrow.