Of War and God

We are currently in the middle of the February break with schools out for 2 weeks.   Concretely, what that means for me is more space in the metro in the mornings, even when I'm running late.  What it *should* mean for the kids is a skiing holiday somewhere up in the mountains, as 99% of French kids do.  However, we can only afford that many ski breaks in a year, so c'est dommage.

Instead, we headed in the opposite direction to the mountains, and took them on an al-cheapo holiday to Normandy, where it's low tourist season, so we snagged cheap accommodation and parking spaces like we own the country.  But obviously, there are good reasons why it's low tourist season.  But we are tough; we are not put off by relentless cold lashings of gales, hailstorms, screaming freezing toddlers and what-have-you.  

But that is why you will see photos like these

Our main purpose was to see the D-Day beaches.  The story of the beginning of the end of World War II was riveting stuff and humbled me to know how lucky we are that the chain of events – both serendipitous and deliberate – unfolded the way they did.  If only one insignificant detail amongst the hundreds did not take place, we would be living in a completely different world today.  But at least everyone will own solid BMWs and we would all be manga experts.

Operation Overlord (the nickname for the Normandy invasion) is the world’s largest amphibious invasion, and was executed by land, sea and air with over 160,000 troops and 5,000 personnel.  The objective was to liberate Nazi-occupied France, starting with the capture of the areas around the Normandy coast, and gradually moving inland to secure  France and eventually the rest of Western Europe.  

The invasion took place in 2 phases: an airborne attack of 24,000 British, American, Canadian and Free French troops shortly after midnight on 6 June 1944, and a sea landing on the coast of Normandy starting at 6:30am by 6 divisions across a 50-km stretch divided into 5 sectors, nicknamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno & Sword. 

After 6 weeks of fighting, the watershed operation ended with the crossing of the river Seine.  However, the war waged on throughout Europe and the rest of the world.  The World War II officially ended in September 1945. 

*Caution: Short history lesson coming up*

The Allies defied logic by choosing to land in Normandy instead of in Pas-de-Calais, where the sea crossing between England and France was only some 10km at its narrowest.  Normandy, on the other hand, is more than 150km from the coast of England.  Consequently, the strongest and most elite German troops were concentrated in Calais, although they were by no means weak in Normandy. 

The Allies went to great lengths to deceive the Germans into believing that the invasion will be happening in Calais, including setting up fake airfields, using inflatable rubber tanks and trucks (which looked real in the photos taken from the air by German intelligence aircrafts), phoney radio traffic, agents and leaked documents. 

The Germans also expected the Allies to land in good weather and at high tide so that ships can land far inland.  So when early June 1944 brought the worst storm in the English Channel in years, the Germans relaxed their watch, and some high commanders went away on meetings and personal leave.  The Allies did not want to postpone the invasion for fear that delays will increase the risks of their plans being leaked, so during a lull in the weather in the early hours of June 6^th, orders were given to begin the invasion, despite low tides and without a full moon to aid the mission. 


This, of course, had the consequence of an extremely long-drawn and catastrophic landing, especially in Omaha Beach, depicted vividly in the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan.  Several hundreds drowned or were shot before they actually landed on the beaches.  Without a full moon, the air bombardments and paratroopers in this area completely failed to take out any of the guns focused on the coast, so the soldiers were easy targets for guns coming from every possible imaginable direction.   It is indeed a miracle that enough of them escaped from the beach to complete their mission. 

Omaha beach today, at mid-tide.  It is probably a 300-500m distance from the waters to the end of the beach, a completely flat and open piece of landscape.  Now imagine there are battalions of army tanks and artillery guns trained on this beach from every angle.  Now walk from one end to another while trying to avoid the shelling of the guns.  

...from these guns...

OK I shall stop the history lesson here, but this is really fascinating stuff, better than the Sejarah Tamadun Islam (history of the Islamic civilisation) that they taught us in school.  Highly recommended is the 1962 film The Longest Day, nominated for 5 Academy Awards and won 2.  A bonus is watching the tall & handsome Sean Connery in his pre-Bond days :) 

We owe our gratitude to these men, who fought knowing the risks.  The American Cemetery near the town of Bayeux has the graves of 9,387 soldiers, including over 1,000 unknown ones. 

Bomb craters all over the Pointe du Hoc, a dramatic cliff outcrop, where artillery guns were kept.  200 Rangers scaled the 30m cliff with guns pointing down at them.  Almost half lost their lives.  

The Omaha beach is just over the other side of the cliffs in the background

The pockmarked walls in this underground German bunker are a present-day reminder of the exchange of fire on D-Day.

View from the subterranean observation post.  Allied ships materialised from this horizon  on D-Day.  

A map of the military operations that culminated in the surrender of the Nazi government in September 1945.

We followed through with the war theme with a visit to see the Bayeux Tapestry, a 1,000 year-old (no kidding!) 68-metre long embroidered piece of linen depicting the conquest of England by the Norman duke, William.  After the battle in Hastings, he became known as William the Conqueror, and that marked the beginning of French rule in England, which lasted more than one hundred years.       

Part of the tapestry - decapitated soldiers are shown on the bottom of this battle scene.

Let's switch to lighter topics after all that gore and violence.  Food!  Normandy is known for its crepes and cider, and we were not disappointed.  

Next: Mont St Michel