June 5 - Touring some of the landing sites in Normandy
I had
an incredible day. Now that we were in France, we
had come into our own.
We set out in the morning for
La Fière, site of the Merderet Bridge, the holding of which was a key objective of some of the first paratroopers to land in Normandy. The Iron Mike commemorative statue is here. (St. Michael the Archangel is the patron saint of paratroopers.) Some paratroopers landed in the Merderet River, and drowned in two feet of water due to the weight of their packs. An intense battle was fought here for two days.
Second stop was Arromanches, where remains of the
Mulberry Harbor still exist. Dubbed "Port Winston Churchill," the Mulberry Harbor enabled thousands of men and millions of tons of food, weaponry, and equipment to enter France.
Finally we visited the
Longues-sur-Mer Battery. The guns here could fire miles out to sea, and it was critical to disable them.
Due to parachute demonstrations we were too tangled in traffic to
complete our itinerary which would have taken
us to Pegasus Bridge, where top flight British engineers dropped in on
gliders and captured the bridge by 1:00 a.m. on D-Day.
But there were so
many compensations ... I spent a fabulous quarter hour
talking with a woman at the desk of our hotel who LOVES Americans (and
Brits and Canadians) and still remembers to credit us with the freedom
she enjoys today. The two of us ended us in tears and we embrassed each
other in the traditional French manner (two kisses, one on each cheek).
Her grandparents cared for injured paratroopers on D-Day. Her father was
only 6 at the time but he remembered and passed on his sense of
gratitude to his children. His father told him when the paratroopers arrived: "It is raining freedom."
Believe me, Americans are HONORED in
Normandy.
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