Omaha Beach

Bon weekend

With Anzac Day nearly upon us and the weather warming up, I took up an offer of a trip to some of the Normandy Beaches where the D Day landings were the main event in 1944. These are a must for anybody visiting this corner of the world. The stretch of coastline where the invasions happened goes for a long way, but we (my travel buddy, Karin and I) just went to Omaha Beach.

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It just looks like a lovely, serene beach along a beautiful piece of coastline and it’s hard to imagine the bloodshed that occurred. Here’s a few pics – no captions needed.

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This green hill would have been a trench for the Germans who were able to shoot the Allies as soon as they got to the beach.

We also visited the Normandy American Cemetery where over 9,000 soldiers are buried, as well as the Garden of the Missing with over 1,500 names engraved. (just to add a bit of perspective, the nearby German Military Cemetery is the final resting place for over 22,000 Germans, and this is only one of six German cemeteries in Normandy).

The cemetery has been photographed and filmed many times (e.g. in Saving Private Ryan) and is been beautifully built and maintained.

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I have no idea who these people are in the photo, but got sick of waiting for a ‘people free’ pic. You can see the sea of white crosses – and this is just a small section.

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So moving. Unfortunately we won’t be able to get to the Anzac Day service at Villers Bretonneux. Malcolm Turnbull and Prince Charles will be there in our absence. We hope to get to the Remembrance Day service in November.

Well that’s all for now.

Love

L&M