Omaha Beach

The northern part of France can be a long drive.  We left Belgium and had to make it to Mont. St. Michelle by 4:30 pm.  So, we had to choose wisely.  We chose to visit one of the American landings, Omaha Beach.

You can hike down from the cemetery or drive.  We chose to drive.

The sand is a lovely yellow-tan.  I imagine it looked much worse when they landed.  The tide was out, but I'm sure on that day, the strip of sand must have looked this far.  All while under fire.

William and Tim hiked out further than I did.

Some 70 years later, there is still some debris.

You can see a portion of something built into the sand here. 

This is just a very small bunker, and not up on the high hill, but still would have been hard to capture.

The side towards the ocean is reinforced, probably from ship-launched missiles.

Here's to the brave, the tried, the true.  RIP.

Love where they put the plaque.

You can see this one is away from the beach.  

Getting in you see the width of the walls.

The gun that could have shot through and mowed down the soldiers advancing.

Their view.  They could strafe from the side as the soldiers tried to climb the hill to the higher, bigger bunkers.

Bikers who rode here to the American Cemetery. 

I wanted William to know how many died that day.

These gave all.

A small museum up the hill had a few tanks.

They also had some of the spikes to stop ships from coming in.

 

And they set up a road through here from Omaha beach.

LOVE this French style house!

A sobering day, but I felt worth taking the time for.  Let us not have war like this again.