Arromanches – Dave and Kay's Travel Adventures

Sunday, October 8th, 2023

We were on the road early because we had a full day ahead of us.

Today we visited visited some of the Normandy beaches. We visited this area on a trip in 2019 and spent a lot of time at all of the D-Day beaches. This time it was just a day trip but it was worth visiting again. A second visit gave us new experiences and insights.

Our first stop was Pointe Du Hoc. Pointe Du Hoc had cliffs(100-120 feet high) that overlooked the English Channel and Omaha Beach.

During WWII this area was a stronghold of the Germans. On June 6, 1944 the US Army Rangers scaled the cliffs to capture this position. You could see remains of German bunkers and machine gun posts.

The French erected this monument on a cliff here to honor the American Second Ranger Battalion.

On the center of Omaha Beach there were two memorials. On the left was the Les Braves which consisted of three elements: 1. the Wings of Hope, 2. Rise, Freedom, and 3. The Wings of Fraternity. On the right was a stone monument to the Allies.

We also saw a memorial for the 29th Division at Omaha Beach of a soldier carrying a wounded comrade on D-day.

Memorial at Omaha Beach of Soldier helping a wounded soldier.

The National Guard Association memorial was important to some of our veterans who served with the National Guard more recently. The National Guard memorial was also located at Omaha beach on top of a German bunker! It commemorated the actions of the National Guard during WWII.

After Omaha Beach we visited the Normandy American Cemetery that overlooked Omaha Beach.

The cemetery was dedicated in 1956 and was located in Colleville-sur-Mer, France. It was built on the temporary American St. Laurent cemetery. It was established by the U.S. First Army on June 8, 1944 and was the first American cemetery on European soil in WWII. The cemetery covered 172 1/2 acres and contained the graves of 9,837 military dead. Most of them lost their lives on the D-Day landings. The cemetery also had a wall of the missing with 1,557 names inscribed on it. A rosette marked by a name meant they were recovered and identified.

The statue by Donald De Lue was made from bronze and was called “Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves”.

Across from the statue one of our travelers in our group was a retired Major General and she presented the veterans in our group with a challenge coin. She also presented those that served prior to 1973 with a coin.

The Veterans traveling with us. We honored their service!

This time capsule was buried on June 6, 1969 and will be opened on the 100th anniversary of the allied landings along the coast of Normandy.

Our lunch was served at the L’Albatros Restaurant that was part of the Omaha Beach Golf Club. The La Mer course had each hole named after a liberating American veteran or famous battle. We enjoyed the lunch that was served.

After lunch we visited the new D-Day museum located in Arromanches’ seafront. It was built on the geographical center of the D-Day landing beaches. This museum focused on the D-Day Landings!

We were interested in the Mulberry Harbor and the museum explained it well. Right after D-Day the beach of Arromanches one of two Mulberry harbors was created. It was quite an engineering feat. The pieces to build the harbor were carried over from Britain. This allowed the heavy equipment to be unloaded. Below were models that showed how the harbor would work.

We saw remnants on land and some that were left out from the beach area.

On our way back to the riverboat we passed the Eisenhower roundabout in Bayeux, France. In the center of the roundabout is a memorial dedicated to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.

When we returned back to the riverboat we had a little time to walk into the town of Caudebec-en-Caux.

In 1940, the Germans wanted to bomb the ferries crossing the river but missed and instead hit cars waiting to cross on the ferry. The cars caught on fire and the fire spread quickly and 80% of the town was destroyed because most of the buildings and homes were made of wood. The Church of Notre-Dame of Caudebec-en-Caux survived. It dated from the 15th and 16th century.

The church was listed as a historic monument since 1840. The Gothic style had many decorative carvings on the outside of the church. We were unable to visit inside because it was late in the day and all the doors were locked.

The sun was setting so we headed back to our riverboat.

Tuesday, July 23rd, 2019

Our first stop today was Sword Beach. The British objective here was to capture the port city of Caen.

some of the town of Caen in the background

“La Flamme” Memorial is made of metal.

“La Flamme” is in the shape of a flame.

“La Flamme” is housed on top of a German bunker.

Statue of Brigadier Lord Lovat.

These stones have the names of the French commando’s who were killed on D-Day.

We toured the beach with the flame memorial. It was a good place to walk and reflect.

It’s incredible what relics that have been found from D-Day that the French and other countries and groups have preserved and kept as part of our WWII history!

The Pegasus Bridge and Museum was our next stop.

The original Pegasus Bridge is shown below!

We drove over the newer bridge that replaced the original bridge which is now in the museum that we are visiting.

Newer Pegasus Bridge

village by the canal and bridge

The Caen Canal

The town people wanted the new bridge to be very much like the old bridge that existed in WWII. The bridge crosses the Caen Canal. During WWII the Allied troops wanted to get control of this bridge and it was a main objective of the British Airborne troops on D-day. These paratroopers came in on gliders, same as our father with the 82nd Airborne. The bridge was renamed in 1944, the Pegasus Bridge in honor of the Operation Pegasus. The Pegasus was a shoulder emblem worn by the British Airborne forces, which is the flying horse, Pegasus!

Juno Beach was our stop after the Pegasus Bridge.

It was originally called Jelly Beach but it has been told that Churchill thought that name was not appropriate for a beach on which many men might die. He insisted that the code name be more dignified, hence Juno!

We saw an excellent movie about D-Day there. The guide at the Juno Beach Center was named Vincent. He is Canadian and this is the beach the Canadians stormed. There were 1,200 casualties out of 21, 400 Canadians that landed at Juno that day.

Our guide Vincent took us on a tour through the remains of the Atlantic Wall, recounting the history of the D-Day landings. We saw the command post of 1941, to the observation bunker built just before the D-Day invasion. You can only tour the Observation bunker and the German Command Post if you are on the tour!

We finished our tour on the beach itself.

We then went to Gold Beach where we saw footage of the D-Day invasion on a 360° screen. Arromanches 360 movie is shown on nine screens. It shows archival footages collected from around the world that tell the story of the 100 days of the Battle of Normandy.

Our lunch was overlooking Gold Beach and it was delicious.

We also had time to explore the town of Arromanches-les- Bains.

Gold Beach is one of the beaches that became a portable harbor called Mulberry Harbor.

This portable harbor was brought over from England to be put in place! The port was to be temporary but ended up being used for five months! The Arromanches Mulberry Harbor became known as Port Winston, after Winston Churchill. We learned that 2.5 million men, 500,000 vehicles and 4 million tons of supplies arrived using Port Winston.

More pictures of the beach with remnants of the Mulberry Harbor are below.

The D-Day 75 Garden was gifted by the UK veterans to the town of Arromanches, Normandy on June 6, 2019! It was first on display at the Royal Hospital Chelsea during their flower show. It celebrates the lives of its Normandy veterans.

Our last stop today was to visit part of the Atlantic Wall at Longues-Sur-Mer German Battery. There were four casemates with the original German cannons still in place. They were built between Gold and Omaha Beaches and shelled both of these beaches. This battery was captured on the day after D-Day, June 7th, 1944.

From the German casemates you can walk a short distance toward the forward outpost. This outpost gave the German commanders a perfect view of the Atlantic. We were able to explore it.