Our half-day tour of the WWII sites included the German Cemetery, Pointe du Hoc, Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery. The tour guide was fantastic filling us with facts about D-Day while we visited each place. I cannot recommend enough visiting Normandy. I've read quite a lot of history about WWII but nothing compares to actually walking around here and seeing the steep cliffs and the long beaches and the German bunkers.
There are 21,000 soldiers buried in the German Cemetery. It is a somber place with black crosses and 2 graves per marker. There is a circular mound containing the remains of 200 unknown soldiers.
There are 21,000 soldiers buried in the German Cemetery. It is a somber place with black crosses and 2 graves per marker. There is a circular mound containing the remains of 200 unknown soldiers.
Pointe du Hoc gave us our first feeling of just how incredible the D-Day invasion was. Today, the German gun battery is full of bomb craters and empty bunkers but the steep cliffs down to the sea remain. We did not realize that both Pointe du Hoc and the American Cemetery are now technically part of the United States having being given to the United States as memorials after the war.
Butch was really moved walking on Omaha Beach where his father landed during the war.
The American Cemetery is the largest military cemetery after Arlington. There are 9000+ graves for soldiers, red cross workers and war correspondents who died in the Battle of Normandy. The families were given the difficult choice of burying their loved ones in Normandy or having the bodies returned to the United States.
There is also a time capsule at the cemetery containing all the general's war reports. The plan is to open it after 100 years on June 6, 2044.
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