Fog on the Beaches

It has been a few years since I have stood on the D- Day Beaches, proof that time marches on, and while this is not my first time here or even my second, this visit was no less powerful.  One often thinks that once you have been to a place it loses its importance to you.  This is not true for me, here at least.  Each visit I bring more knowledge and a greater sense of awe at the sacrifices made here.  Each visit I leave a bit more grateful that I live the life I do.

This visit included a visit to the town of Sainte-Mère-Église, the sight of the 101st and 82nd Airborne drop.  A well-known incident here involved paratrooper John Steele of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, whose parachute caught on the spire of the town church and could only observe the fighting going on below. He hung there limply for two hours, pretending to be dead before the Germans took him, prisoner. Steele later escaped from the Germans and rejoined his division.  Another one of the essential missions of the 82nd American Airborne Division was to take the bridges spanning the Fière river and the ones in Chef-du-Pont, located west of Sainte-Mère-Église. Between 6 and 9 June 1944, fierce battles took place in the surrounding area of Merderet, in the midst of swamps purposely flooded by German forces. Our B and B in Sainte-Mère-Église overlooked one of these bridges and we were treated to a history lesson from the proprietor, who has amassed a collection of artifacts collected from his property, site of a field hospital.  History has never been closer.

At Pointe Du Hoc, situated just between Omaha Beach and Utah Beach, the pointe dominates the sea of its vertical cliff from 25 to 30 meters high. It was heavily fortified and sat high above the sea looking over Utah Beach on its left and Omaha Beach on its right.  Rangers had to scale the cliffs under heavy fire and it is any wonder that a single man survived. On our visit, the fog is heavy and rolling and for just a second you could almost think it smoke.  The craters from the bombardment are just a big as the last time I was here, though slowly being taken over by brambles and grass.  The damage is still just as shocking. The fog lends an eerie quiet to our visit.

Over the past few days, I have put my feet on all 5 landing beaches, listened to guides and read notes about that famous day so very long ago.  I still find it impossible to believe that a place like the American Cemetary at Omaha is possible.  How could a nation, no a world ask such a sacrifice? There are markers of one shape or another of over 209 000 casualties from amongst the combined allied forces here in Normandy. The number is unfathomable.  And yet as I stood there on the beaches I am sure I felt their presence, reminding us to never forget.  Perhaps that is a message growing more important by the day.

Cheers,
Rachel

Fog at Pointe du Hoc

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them. Robert Laurence Binyon