"Band of Brothers Adventure" Day 3 -- NORMANDY, Part 6 (Brecourt Mannor, Sainte-Mère-Église ) ...

It was just a short jaunt over to the farm known as Brecourt Mannor, the place where the Germans had several big guns situated that overlooked the landing areas on the beaches.  This farm, the German guns and their destruction by Easy Company, 502 PIR, was highlighted in the HBO min--series, "Band of Brothers."  I have watched this series so many times I wore out the one that my old Sergeant-Major gave me and had to buy another set of discs.  As is shown in the pictures below, this area has pretty much been preserved as it might have been then.

                                            

The monument to the right was erected when the men from Easy Company came to visit this field again. The guide that the tour company (Beyond the Band of Brothers) hired (various subject matter experts for each of the stops on the tour) went into great detail explaining the placement areas for the guns, and how the men of Easy Company took them out.  There has been a lot written about this and it was subsequently used by Army as a model for small unit tactics.  Google this and there will be lots of articles, books, maps and videos of terrain walks for your review.

Following this stop, we headed out for Sainte-Mère-Église.  This was really a great place to see and take in the history of what happened to the Airborne troops that assaulted this area. There is an 82d Abn.museum in the city and there were really interesting exhibits, including a WACO glider which was manufactured in Troy, OH. Again, this is one of the things that would be worth your while to Google as there are tons of documents, pictures, maps, and stories surrounding this assault.  Below are some of the pictures I took highlighting just a few of the things to see here.

Men attending mass in this church.

The church today.

A stained glass window in the church.  Notice the 82d emblem in the upper left and the parachute at the very top. Enlarge this picture and see all the various airborne images the people put in it. I think I remember someone in the church telling me that the person in the middle of the window is supposed to be the patron saint of paratroopers.

This is a vigil stand.  You light one of the candles and say a prayer for someone or something.  I lit two of the candles -one for my dad, and one for my brother-in-law, Chuck (third row up from the bottom, far left).

My dad was artillery during the war, so I checked out this piece.  He was not in the 82d, but I remember him telling me he fired big howitzers, much bigger than this one.

This is the outside of the church at Sainte-Mère-Église.  You can see the outside of the window shown above.  The white item caught on the spire of the church is a representation of John Steele, a paratrooper whose chute caught up on it during the assault. Originally, this was on the other side of the church (historically correct), but tourists didn't see it there, so they moved it to this side. Google this too.  It's interesting.

Keith and I had a great lunch here, and the beer was really pretty good. So this was a pretty busy day and now it's off to Bastogne.

Click on this link for some more info on this site.  Follow-up link. 

 “People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”  (George Orwell)

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"Band of Brothers Adventure" Day 3 -- NORMANDY, Part 5 (American Cemetery at Normandy) ...

Our next stop was at the American Cemetery at Normandy.  I was so looking forward to seeing this piece of ground, but was not ready for what I saw.  We got off the bus and walked down a little drive and the first thing I saw was the statue shown below.  And then I looked to the left and that sight almost took my breath away.  White crosses for pretty much as far as you can see, at least to the edge of the cliffs at the ocean side. If you did any homework before going here, and if you know anything about what took place on the beaches below and the surrounding countryside, seeing this place and walking among the first few rows, it's like a gut punch. The overwhelming weight of this sight demands that you stop, take a deep breath, and remember that each of these 9,385 markers was a person, a person who fought to keep us free, who fought against unimaginable horrors.  The exact precision in which the crosses are lined across the field is a stark contrast to the chaos of those battles.  But beyond all of that, it is just overwhelming knowing that each of these markers was a human being. Over the next few days, we were to see several cemeteries like this one, but this one woke me up.

 

I was surprised to find, as I walked around, that there are actually quite a few markers that indicated that the soldier buried there was unknown -- 307 Unknowns.  I didn't know that prior to going there.

The Normandy American Cemetery is located in Colleville-sur-Mer.  It is situated on 172.5 acres and contains the graves of 9,385 of our soldiers.  There are 1,557 names on the wall by the statue denoting those who were missing in action, and there are 45 sets of brothers buried here.

As enormous and overwhelming as this place of honor was, it's hard to know that this wasn't all of it -- all of the war that was to consume and destroy a continent. 

"Our flag does not fly because the wind moves it. It flies with the last breath of each soldier who died protecting it." (Unknown)

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(P.s. Here is a picture of the first burial place for Soldiers killed at Normandy.  Didn't last long ans it quickly became overcome by sheer numbers.)

"Band of Brothers Adventure" Day 3 -- NORMANDY, Part 4 (Walking the grounds) ...

After spending a great deal of time on the beaches and seeing the big German guns on the cliffs above the landing area, we spent some time over by the areas where the Rangers came up the cliff at Point du Hoc.  What they managed to do was absolutely unbelievable.  I went to the edge of the cliffs and looked down, just as the German defenders might have.  The fields of fire the Germans had presented such a dangerous mission for those Rangers. I don't know how all of this went down, but at some point the big guns of the Navy played an important role, shelling the German guns on the cliffs, paving the way for the invading Americans and Allies.

This picture shows the view out of a gun emplacement over the cliffs.

 

The two pictures above give you an idea of just how formidable that shelling must have been.  I'm viewing this some 60 years after the war, so the craters have filled in some with the elements and time, but as you can see, this terrain was just destroyed and to a great extent hasn't grown back.  I walked down into the center of a couple of them and they were still more than 15-20 feet deep and around 10-12 yards wide.  Also, these craters were literally right next to each other.  The paths that are in the bottom picture led from one crater to another.  I know this picture doesn't do justice to the actual size of this area and the damage that was done.  Perhaps you can go some other place on line and get some better pictures.

"It was a different world then. It was a world that required young men like myself to be prepared to die for a civilization that was worth living in."  (Harry Read, British D-Day veteran) 

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"Band of Brothers Adventure" Day 3 -- NORMANDY, Part 3 ("Then and now") ...

Quite a while ago, a friend of mine (Keith) sent me a power point presentation that showed pictures of Normandy as it was during the war, and as it was at the time these pictures were taken (not sure of the date).  This was kinda the spark that led to this trip.  Thought you would like to see it and I really wanted to show that particular one.  BUT, I was not smart enough to figure out how to get a power point presentation linked to this entry. I'll keep trying.  Maybe my friend Dave will be able to tell me when he reads this.

I'm not sure this video will be the one to come up each time. But, again, you are looking for the one that is titled "Normandy, then and now."

Also, please feel free to skip the ads that might pop up.  Don't know how to edit them out.Also, I hope there is nothing that is inappropriate that might pop up.  If this becomes a problem, I might delete this entry.

Regardless, this was quite a trip.  Seeing the places where my father might have walked was quite an experience.

“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him”

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