Posted on 05/27/2024 8:11:55 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative
My favorite is the one where Patton is buried in Luxembourg. Good interpretive signage there about the big battles too.
Good you’re going to Normandy soon, “Climate Change” is now threatening the beaches.
https://news.yahoo.com/frances-historic-d-day-beaches-144214429.html
You are referring to the St. Laurent Cemetery above Omaha Beach in in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy. It is a lovely cemetery and one can walk down the steps made on the track that the 16th Infantry climbed to get behind the German defenders. (See for battle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omaha_Beach )
I visited Normandy in June, 1986, with a group of fellow Army officers touring the Normandy battlefields and took that trail, now a nice set of steps from the cemetery to the eastern end of Omaha Beach.
Visit the American Battle Monuments Commission website to get details to help plan your visit.
From wikipedia about establishing the St. Laurent Cemetery: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normandy_American_Cemetery_and_Memorial
I was just in Bayeux last week went on beaches tour of Omaha, Utah, Pointe de Hoc along with American cemetery at Omaha. Airborne museum at St. Mere Église was good.
They had blocked off much of the American Cemetery for the dignitaires stages and you can’t get next to the gravesites unlike the British cemetery in Bayeux.
The best hotels on Bayeux were full.
But the Bayeux tapestry was great as were the beaches.
Go when there’s not a big anniversary.
When you pass another train going the opposite direction, it only takes a few seconds.
I’ve taken the French high speed trains many times. Usually down to the Riviera.
My daughter and I went to see the Normandy site.
We hired a private driver on line to drive and conduct the tour.
She picked us up at our hotel early 6am.
On the way, she explained the local history of DDay and how each little town was impacted.
We stopped for a quick breakfast and were at the coast under war sunny and windy skies.
We saw the cliffs they climbed and the bomb craters and the remains of the German artillery emplacements. The people were quiet, whispers about what they were seeing.
We walked the beaches, nobody had it easy. There are houses along the road now.
The rain started when we got to the Cemetery.
Row upon row of white markers.
We found some with the same last names of our families, no idea if they were relatives or not.
Do it and remember.
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