Page 12 - Talk of Tequesta - July '19

Page 12, The Talk Of Tequesta

haPPeNiNgs from page 10
D-Day Normandy 75th Anniversary

Report and Photos by Penny Sheltz

We celebrated a special D-Day 75th anniversary at Normandy War. High cliffs at the western Next we stopped at Omaha Beach where we lost the most
Beaches in May visiting to truly understand the price of freedom. end of the zone meant that servicemen in that bloody battle in 1944.
History came alive on our special tour to the beaches to learn the landings took place on the We paid tribute to fallen soldiers in the Normandy American
the history and Europe’s devastation of the Third Reich. flat section. Taking Gold was Cemetery and Omaha Beach with its dramatic cliffs.
We left the port of La Havre to trace the history of the infamous to be the responsibility of the Pointe du Hoc and Omaha is where U.S. Rangers scaled cliffs to
D-Day landings on a full-day excursion to significant battlefields British Army, with sea transport, capture a German battery, Omaha Beach, the bloodiest of the D-Day
and landing beaches. mine sweeping, and a naval landing beaches, as portrayed in the movie Saving Private Ryan.
First on our stop was Sword Beach, the easternmost beach of bombardment force provided Among the five beaches earmarked by the Allies, Omaha
the five landing areas of the Normandy Invasion. It was assaulted by the Royal Navy as well Beach was the U.S.’s responsibility, a five-mile span of beach
by units of the British Third Division, with French and British as elements from the Dutch, that American troops were tasked with invading and securing.
commandos attached. Shortly after midnight on D-Day morning, Polish and other Allied navies. By nightfall on one of the darkest days in U.S. military history,
elements of the Sixth Airborne Division, in a daring glider-borne The objectives at Gold were Omaha Beach was held for the Allies, but at the expense of 3,881
assault, seized bridges inland from the beach and also silenced to secure a beachhead, move We traveled to the German dead and wounded from the 1st, 2nd and 29th U.S. Divisions,
artillery pieces that threatened the seaborne landing forces. west to capture Arromanches Ponte du Hoc battery on the who encountered appalling weather, strong tides in the English
We drove by Juno Beach which had a museum and memorial and establish contact with the coast of Omaha Beach, site of Channel and fierce bombardment from Nazi forces. Imagine
to all Canadians who lost their lives but we had no Canadians on American forces at Omaha, a bloody battle in 1944. American soldiers who survived the maneuvers as they saw
our tour so even though we owned the Juno Beach Pier in Florida capture Bayeux to link up with their fellow soldiers die when the landing ramps were lowered
where we had our oceanfront business we understood there was the Canadian forces at Juno to the east. Forces attacking Gold faced and many were hit by German fire. Many died before they even
no time to see all the beaches and the American ones were the elements of the German 352nd and German 716th Infantry Division. reached the beach as their fellow soldiers saw blood and body
most important. About 2,000 men were stationed in the immediate area. parts floating around them and laying on the beach.
Next was Gold Beach, one of the five areas of the Allied Improvements to fortifications along the Normandy coast had
invasion of German-occupied France during the Second World been undertaken under the leadership of General Marshall Erwin
Rommel beginning in October 1943. On D-Day at Gold, naval
bombardment got underway at 05:30, and amphibious landings
commenced at 07:25. High winds made conditions difficult for
the landing craft, and the amphibious DD tanks were released
close to shore or directly on the beach instead of further out as
planned. Three of the four guns in a large emplacement at the
Longues-sur-Mer battery were disabled by direct hits from the
cruisers at 06:20. The fourth gun resumed firing intermittently
in the afternoon, and its garrison surrendered on 7 June. Due to
stiff resistance from the German 352nd Infantry Division, Bayeux
was not captured until the next day. British casualties at Gold are
estimated at 1,000 to 1,100. German casualties are unknown.
Following the fall of France, British Prime Minister Winston
We visited several German bunkers that had their guns aimed Churchill vowed to return to continental Europe and liberate the
at our troops when they ran onto the beaches. Nazi German-occupied nations. Omaha Beach

American Memorial and Cemetery with thousands of white
crosses honoring the fallen

Some of the cliffs were so tall, for those troops who made it
to the beach they still had cliffs to climb in some areas.

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