Normandy Part II

Tuesday, May 1st

I woke up early again to meet with my tour group but had to check out of my hotel first as I was going to travel directly to Paris after we returned to Bayeux. It took FOREVER to check out; so much so that I thought I was going to be late for the tour group. It seems that the two hotels I wrote about earlier were indeed connected and that there was only one person to work both desks. Nicely done there. But I finally did get out of there and I walked back to the supermarket to get some breakfast like I had the day before except the damn place was closed because of the commie holiday. I did score a baguette from a bakery though and that had to do until we stopped for lunch.

We got into our conveyance and drove to Omaha beach. Unfortunately, the tide was in and the tide at Omaha varies by an enormous amount, at least in my eyes. There’s a sea wall and at low tide, the distance between the wall and the waterline is at least 500-600 yards. We got there at a rising tide and we only had 10 yards of beach to stand on. The tide kept coming in though and forced us over the sea wall (distance to water line 0 yards at high tide) before our guide had even finished explaining the assault. I should point out that we were at the Dog Green sector of the beach. Dog Green was a massacre. The first wave landing on the beach suffered 85-90% casualties. Think about that for a second: only one in ten men made if off that beach without getting hit or killed. There was a company in which only one guy got off the beach that day without a wound (or without being killed, but that should go without saying). I should also point out that this is the sector that was portrayed in Saving Private Ryan and it was just as bad, if not worse than, what they depicted in the movie. Our guide told us about the defenses the Germans had set up, i.e. the number of machine guns, mortars, and artillery pieces that they were armed with and if you calculate the total number of machine guns with their rate of fire, the Germans were capable of putting over 11,000 rounds on target in any given minute. And that’s just the machine guns; that doesn’t take rifle, artillery or mortar fire into account at all.

After Dog Green, we moved to the American cemetery and it was stunning. There’s actually not too much to say here except that it was a sobering experience and beautiful in a disturbing sort of way.

From the cemetery, we traveled to the Omaha Beach Museum and then to lunch. I had a ham sandwich that they stuffed fries into. It was tasty.

We left the café we had lunch in and went to a pretty much deserted area that only a few people know about. There were four major roads, or draws, that lead off Omaha beach and which incoming tanks and support vehicles could use. There was also a fifth draw that wasn’t usable but troops found their way up it and it’s also where Jimmie Monteith won his Medal of Honor. The other notable things about this location: first, it provided a great view around the whole crescent shaped beach. The Second is that, since it is unknown, some of the original German zigzag trenches are still visible and a couple of bunkers are around that you can go into.

The next site we went to was Widerstandsnest 62, a fortified German strong point overlooking the beach just north of Colleville-sur-Mer (where the American cemetery is). This time, we were given biographies of the German defenders and their stories of what was happening that day. I may be mistaken, but if I remember correctly, only 3 of the Germans that occupied that position made it out of Normandy alive. We got to go into an observation bunker and visited the site where the machine guns were located and some other German defenses. Some of the trenches are still visible here too but since this is a more trafficked location, they’ve been worn down quite a bit more than the other place we had seen. It wasn’t hard to imagine what the Germans would have seen that day and why the place was a complete shooting gallery.

We made a quick, quick stop to the site of a makeshift airbase that the Americans built just inland from Omaha. There isn’t much to say here either and the only reason we stopped here was because our guide wanted to explain that within a day or two of securing the beachhead, the Americans had already built a functional airstrip for fighter planes and an emergency landing area for stricken bombers. The speed of the building project was pretty impressive.

The next stop was another sector of Omaha beach – this time it was Fox Green. I collected another sand sample and then we headed off to Pointe du Hoc. This is where Army Rangers scaled a cliff to make an assault on some German artillery pieces that were supposed to be on top of the cliff. The Rangers are believed to be the first American forces that made it to the high ground during the Omaha assault. Some climbed up manually with their trench knife in one hand and a bayonet in the other, hand over hand, all the way to the top. Nuts. When they got there, they discovered the guns had been moved but they set out, found the guns, destroyed them and then beat back furious German counter attacks on their positions.

What stands out about Pointe du Hoc today is the landscape. The terrain is hilly and full of bumps and uneven ground. Or so you would think. Our instructor pointed out that none of the terrain as it appears today is natural. It was all caused by the bombardment on D-Day and prior to the landings. It must have been a moonscape if after 60+ years it’s still that fucked up. And the crazy thing is: there are still German bunkers that look more or less unscathed by the bombings. The krauts knew how to build defensive structures. There are random pieces of concrete strewn about though, some as many as 30 tons. Apparently, the Rangers found a bunker that was used as an ammo dump and they tossed grenades in there. The ensuing explosion was powerful enough to toss these several ton pieces of concrete about like dice. There was another unfinished bunker that was hit and the twisted rebar enforcement is a testament to the energy the explosions unleashed.

I do have to relate the tale of something else that happened at Pointe du Hoc though. I went to use the restroom and a dude pulled up next to me at the urinal and was completely staring at my junk. It wasn’t one of those split-second glances that you notice from time to time either – it was a full-on, “I think I’m just going to stare at your dick now” moment. The guy was French though and I reckon he hadn’t seen a real proper slab of meat before in his life so I can’t hold it against him even if it was wholly and totally inappropriate. That and my wang is so incredibly large that it does have it’s own gravitational pull which, naturally, pulls some eyeballs in its direction.

The last place we went to was the German cemetery. It wasn’t as majestic as the American cemetery, but let’s be honest: it fucking shouldn't be, should it? When you start a World War and the Holocaust was also your doing, you get a simple understated cemetery. Period. Still though, there are tons of people buried there. The American cemetery has over 9,000 graves. The German cemetery has over 20,000 in a much smaller area. The headstones are places nearly level with the ground and each plot has at least two soldiers buried in it. I found one with five unknown soldiers.


We left the German cemetery and with that, our tour was over. I went back to Bayeux and said goodbye to the others and then went to a pizzeria for dinner. Then I walked to the train station and was lucky enough to find and earlier train to Paris and boarded. Fortune was in my favor once again when a super hot chick that looked like Amy sat just ahead of me. She got up at one point and passed me and then as she was coming back, another dude was coming down the aisle in the opposite direction so she scooted over into my row and placed her booty right in front of my face. Word.

Once in Paris, I bought my metro ticket and then traveled to my hotel. It was a dump, honestly, but I was exhausted so I washed up, watched Chelsea v. Liverpool and then crashed out.

A quick note about my tour though: if you ever find yourself in Normandy, do a tour with Battlebus. I have gotten to be a relatively experienced traveler and I normally HATE tours with a passion. I did one in Dublin and I’m still pissed about it. It was a complete waste of time and money. I, naturally, wanted to visit Normandy and do the D-Day stuff on my own but decided against it because I wasn’t mobile (i.e. I didn’t have my own wheels) and because in THIS case, there is WAY too much info and way too much stuff to learn to do it on your own. I never would have known about Angoville, Graignes, WN 62 and a ton of other stuff if I’d have tried to wander around on my own.

As for Battlebus, there are a number of tour outfits that operate in the Normandy area that are probably fine if you just want to go to a location, take a picture or two and split. But with our group, every place we visited had its strategic importance explained, the battle broken down and relevant information passed on so you weren’t left wanting for information. On top of that, it’s a long tour and you definitely get your money’s worth. I signed up for a two-day tour and we were gone for nine hours each day. At the end, I still felt there was so much to see and do and I can only guess at how much one of the shorter baloney tours would have left me unsatisfied. I should also note that the tour group has a maximum of eight people and mine only had five including me so it’s not a big cumbersome group. Like I said (and no, I’m not getting paid for this or anything) if you go to Normandy and want to have the best experience, I would recommend Battlebus. You simply can’t do it on your own and the other tours wouldn’t do the whole thing justice.