If you’ve watched “Band of Brothers”, you know of Major Dick Winters. He was known for his leadership of Easy-Company, part of 101st Airborne Division, throughout the Normandy campaign. And if you have not watched “Band of Brothers”, I highly recommend it as a very accurate telling of the story of Easy-Company. Better yet, read the book.
Pointe du Hoc is a prominent cliff on the Normandy coast in France, famous for its role in World War II during the D-Day invasion. It’s roughly 30m tall (about 5 stories to add context), and the US Army Rangers scaled it under heavy German fire. It was strategic, because it could fire on both Obama and Utah beaches, which were the two American landing beaches, so disabling it was critical to the Normandy invasion. Today, Pointe du Hoc stands as a reminder of the bravery and sacrifice of those who fought there, with a preserved battlefield, memorials, and breathtaking views of the English Channel.
A mildly interesting side-node: some of the ladders they used to scale the cliff were on loan from the London fire brigade!
One of the many reinforced gun emplacements
Lookout point over the channel
Gun emplacement that was never completed.
The pathfinders were the first to arrive in Normandy as part of the D-Day landings. Parachuting into Normandy just after midnight, their role was to map out the drop-zones for the main landings.
In total, 13400 airborne soldiers landed in Normandy, including E-company – the legendary Band of Brothers.
If you’ve seen the movie ‘The Longest Day’, you will remember the scene where John Steele’s parachute gets caught on the church steeple of Sainte-Mère-Église. Well this is where it happened. He lay there for over 2 hours pretending to be dead until he was captured by the Germans (he later escaped).
A minor correction to the figure hanging with the parachute – he was actually hanging on the other side, but I guess it looks more impressive from the town square.
Have a close look at the stained glass window from inside.
The German cemetery in La Cambe, Normandy, is the final resting place of more than 21,000 German soldiers who died during the Second World War.
Unlike the Allied cemeteries, which have white crosses or stars, the German cemetery has dark stone crosses and plaques.
Many of the graves belong to young men who were conscripted into the Nazi army and forced to fight against their will. Some of them were as young as 16 years old. The cemetery is a somber reminder of the tragedy and horror of war.
More photos of Normandy. A lot of the D-Day artefacts are in museums, but you still see them scattered through the countryside, left behind after the battles.
Field guns
Massive coltrops. These were used to stop just about anything and are remarkable similar to their predecessors used to stop horses, dating back to Ancient Greece.
More guns
Pillbox that clearly had a fair bit of damage
More guns
Another caltrop, with statues of soldiers exiting a landing craft on one of the landing beaches
This is a replica of the gliders that were used in the D-Day landings. The gliders were made of wood, and were only made for a single flight. They were literally towed across the channel and released to crash land in fields. They were used to transport troops, arms and supplies.
This replica is at the Pegasus Bridge Museum. To my knowledge there are no original gliders left since they were never made to last (there are a few restorations in the US).
Pegasus Bridge is a is a bascule bridge (which means it lifts up to allow river traffic through. It was one of the key access points that had to be secured in the D-Day landings, and one of the few places that had an almost text-book capture of the bridge. Although it’s also the site of the first allied casualty in the D-Day landings.
In 1994, when the road was widened, they replaced it with a wider version of the original bridge, which was moved to a museum alongside the canal.
Looking down towards the bridge towards the mechanism
The original bridge, in the Pegasus Bridge Museum. The museum has some interesting exhibits, including a full-scale glider replica, as well as parts of an original glider.
Some more photos of the Longues-sur-Mer battery above Omaha and Gold Beaches.
The casemates and gun emplacements remain largely intact, providing a tangible reminder of the intense fighting that took place on the beaches of Normandy during the Allied invasion.
The guns could shoot over 20km, providing a real threat to the offshore allied ships.
Inside one of the gun casemates.
Like most D-Day sights, its open at no cost to the public.
The Longues-sur-Mer battery are some of the many guns forming the Atlantic Wall from World War 2. The guns are 5inch Naval guns repurposed as coastal defence, and the roof and walls are over 2m thick. This particular battery had three guns, all of which are still in place (needless to say none of them work).
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