Page 18 - Southern Expsoure - June '20

Page 18, Southern Exposure

travel

Normandy, Home Of D-Day

By Don Kiselewski, MCC, D.S., Palm Beach Gardens Travel Leaders
Battle sites hold a Normandy has had a long history
unique place in the heart of invasions and even received its
of Americans. We visit name as a result of nearly 50 years
the locations and attempt of battles that ended in the year 911.
to picture the actions and In that year, Charles the Simple
events that surrounded the conceded some western territory to
confrontation. We focus Rollo, who in return swore homage
on a picture in our mind’s to Charles, accepted baptism and
eye of how it must have agreed to defend his kingdom against
been during the heat of the other Vikings. Normandy, the duchy
conflict. At memorials like of Northmen (or Normans) was thus
Pearl Harbor, we wonder created. The 14th and 15th centuries
in amazement at the oil that is still floating to the surface again saw this area in conflict, this
from the Battleship USS Arizona that lies below the water. time with the British. During this
And, in Normandy, we crawl through the concrete bunkers confrontation, the French expelled the
that formed the Atlantic Wall and stare in amazement at the invaders, sending them back across
remains of the concrete structures that were towed from the English Channel, only to welcome Café Gonorée near the Pegasus Bridge in continual use since before World War II
England and sunk at Arromanches to form the Mulberry them with open arms some 500 years
Harbour. later when they were liberated from Hitler. density. The hand-to-hand fighting that took place in these
One would have to be oblivious to not realize the The white (chalk) cliffs of Dover are reflected on the hedgerows was some of the most costly of the war.
attention that our media has paid to this world-shaping south side of the channel in the Le Havre and Cherbourg The Orne River cuts Normandy in two, making a
event, perhaps the most important battle of World War II. area. The waterfront between these two locations varies major natural obstacle. The bridge crossing at Bénouville
June 6, 1944, also known as D-Day, was the launch day for from flat, wide-open beaches with minimal dunes, much near Caen was a key ingredient of the Allied Invasion
the final drive to expel Hitler and his forces from dominance the same as we have here in Palm Beach County, to an on D-Day. By gaining control of this bridge, Rommel’s
in Europe and perhaps the world – quite possibly the most area where the beaches are quite narrow. In these narrow Panzer Divisions lost the access to reinforce the German
important date in the 20th century. The consequences of areas, there is an initial dune line backed up by steep cliffs. troops defending the beaches, and were confined to the
the events that occurred on the beaches and battlefields of In some locations, these cliffs are in excess of 200 feet. It eastern portion of Normandy. Control of the bridge also
Normandy, France, changed the destiny of the world. The was just this type of beach that confronted the American gave the Allies the pathway from the beaches to Paris.
history speaks for itself, however the emotional impact to troops at Omaha. The Germans greeted them from dug-in, A few moments after midnight on D-Day, British
visitors of these historic beaches is simply remarkable. concrete-reinforced, heavy artillery positions that formed troops of the 5th Airborne Division, using three gliders,
The lands along the 50 or so miles of the Baie de la Seine, the Atlantic Wall. German units commanded these catbird landed silently at this key bridge location. Within minutes,
between the Cherbourg (or Cotentin) Peninsula and the positions that made it so difficult to secure and cost so the bridge had been captured by this small courageous
mouth of the Seine River, underwent a coded name change many lives in the effort. force, which was also able to withstand the German
for the D-Day invasion, which in some instances have Behind the reaches of the shore lies the gently rolling counterattack until their efforts were reinforced by troops
marked the area forever. The code names, Utah and Omaha, countryside which on the eastern end of the beaches is coming overland. The Pegasus (winged horse) was the
used to define the beaches of the American involvement, open and fairly clear from landowner to landowner. It is symbol of this British airborne unit and from this insignia
along with Mulberry, the name given to the prefabricated the western areas, south of the beaches at Utah and Omaha,
harbor built at Arromanches, for the invasion points can that the land parcels are divided into thick hedgerows. Travel on page 19
still be found on many maps today. However, Gold, Juno These hedgerows have
and Sword, the cryptic names for the British and Canadian stood for hundreds of years,
landing sites, have disappeared. increasing in thickness and

The Normandy American Cemetery in Northern France, one of 14 permanent American World
War II military cemeteries constructed on foreign soil by the American Battle Monuments
Commission. The first headstone is unnamed and reads, “Here rests in honored glory a
comrade in arms known but to God.” The rolling hills and cliffs of Normandy where much of the D-Day battle took place

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