I went to a wedding in Poland recently. We landed in London, bounced around like a ping pong ball with the rest of tourists, and after a couple of days headed for Normandy, France, Omaha Beach and Pointe du Hoc. We boarded a ferry out of Portsmouth in Southern, England, crossed the English Channel to the port near Caen, France, then a bus, a train, and another bus from Bayeux to Omaha Beach. Here was the site of the most vicious fighting of D-Day, June 6, 1944 and of the next weeks and months. The morning was hot and steamy, but this was on my bucket list, so there was no stopping the experience. In 1944, the Americans stormed the beaches, but were met with well entrenched German infantry firing machine guns, mortars, and artillery at point blank. The first wave were stymied and stopped on the beaches. The surviving officers requested more fire power from the Navy. Usually the ships stay away from land and fire at great distances. This was no ordinary invasion. Half a dozen destroyers, smaller, heavily armed ships, raced to within 600 yards of shore and fired their big guns at the German positions, thus freeing up the troops to move inland and allowing the next wave of troops to land. Close by, at Pointe du Hoc, between Omaha Beach and Utah Beach, two hundred Rangers were climbing straight up the cliffs to destroy big guns that had been moved weeks before. They made the climb at great loss. Only 90 Rangers survived. To visit the positions, German concrete pill boxes, and the cliffs at Point du Hoc, is overpowering. The area is pockmarked with twenty foot craters left from the shelling and bombing that this spot endured. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine the carnage that 18 and 20 year old’s had seen.
Today the area above Omaha Beach is known as the American Cemetery. France deeded the land to the United States. There are 9386 Americans buried here. All creeds, colors, races, and religions. There were workers washing headstones, and trimming bushes. Its very much like a park, in that it’s the sound of birds, rather than bullets breaking the beautiful silence. I walked through the headstones. The name of the soldier, state, and date of death mark each headstone. Many of the headstones are marked UNKNOWN, Here lies a comrade in arms known but to God. I talked with an older fellow that said, “All members of Congress should visit Omaha Beach. Then go back and do your job. The tough part was done for them at Normandy”
