Bayeux to Grandcamp-Maisy

I didn't make it too far today. Woke up late and had a lot of places to visit.

First was the Longues battery. That's the place I didn't get to days ago because of a hill. It was a series of coastal gun emplacements protected by other defences. There are 4 gun batteries still there. Ironically, when I arrived I had to sit for a while so I could take photos because my phone had no battery.

After that I zoomed along the coast to Colleville-sur-Mer, the site of the American cemetery. It's the one from the opening and closing scenes of Saving Private Ryan. It sits atop the bluffs of Omaha beach. I don't really want to do a cemetery review, so I'll just say it was big and it was beautiful. Very different to Tyne Cot.

They also have a visitor centre attached which was very good. Of course, being American I had to go through airport style security to get in. The bloke demanded to see my knife. I had a corkscrew buried somewhere in my bag but he was sure it was a knife, so I had to dig it out, which took 20 minutes while people stared at me like I'm a terrorist. I learned from the visitor centre that America is pretty good. Probably the best they've heard of.

After that I went down towards the beach and stopped at the Omaha museum. I can't get over how many museums there are. This one was pretty good. Lots of personal accounts from people who assaulted the beach. Seeing tanks and guns gets old but the stories are fascinating. Nobody had an easy run that day.

Next I went to the Omaha Beach memorial just down the road. It was a big statue surrounded by French people playing bocce. They play that game everywhere. There are people playing it on the road in front of me right now.

I kept going along the coast and got to Pont Du Hoc. It was the place where there were so bloody big guns pointed at Utah and Omaha beach. It sits atop some cliffs and points out into the channel. Terrible description. 225 Rangers had the job of climbing the cliffs and clearing out the guns. They got a bit lost at first so the Germans had recovered from the naval bombardment by the time they got there. They were also supposed to signal for reinforcements, but because they were late the reinforcements had already been diverted to Omaha.

So they battled up the cliffs, losing about 80 blokes in the process, and found that the guns were actually telegraph poles. Sneaky Germans had tricked them. The guns had been moved south 1km, so they went fighting through the hedges and found them and destroyed them. Then they held of a counter-attack until the troops from Omaha linked up with them. Of the 225 soldiers only 90 of them were still upright at the end.

The site itself is the most preserved I've seen. It is covered with deep craters and the defences are still largely intact. I actually recognised it from call of duty 2, although the craters were way deeper. You could see Utah beach off in the distance.

They had some personal stories of sacrifice, and one was about a ranger who celebrated his birthday and his wedding anniversary the night before they were to assault Omaha. He was shot and killed within minutes of landing. His widow lived until 2002 and was buried next to him. 58 years she went on without him. I thought that story was particularly touching.

I kept going and got to Grandcamp-Maisy. There is a freedom statue at the entrance to the town. I took a photo but it was partially obscured by an American flag. I guess that's the price of freedom statue photos.

So I didn't make it to Carentan. Tomorrow I will, but will go to the German cemetery first. That will be the last of my battlefield tour, then a dash to Mont Saint-Michel.