The American Cemetery - 9387 graves
We made a special pilgrimage today to the beaches of Normandy, site of the famous D-Day landings on June 6, 1944. Sixty-two years later it is hard to believe that this beautiful and tranquil countryside was once the site of war and death.
We took a meandering route through the countryside (on the route the Tour de France will take later this week) to the city of Caen, a seemingly modern city that was very badly damaged during World War II. We began our day at Le Mémorial, the Museum of Peace on the outskirts of Caen. The museum told the story of the events leading up to World War II and key aspects of the war. There was a very compelling film on D-Day using actual footage shot by the Allies and the Germans… narrated only by music.
After lunch we drove to the coast and then along several of the landing beaches: Juno, Gold and Omaha. Off the coast near Arromanches, we stopped at a lookout point where we could still see remains of the temporary Mulberry harbor and the German bunkers built into the cliffs.
We had not expected Omaha Beach to be a recreational beach. A few weeks ago we watched Saving Private Ryan in preparation for our trip to Normandy. It was hard to reconcile the terrible scenes of the men struggling ashore and dying on the beach with the families playing on the sand today. But we realize that life continues, and that these thousands of young men died to protect the freedoms of others. We were proud to be Americans.
We also visited the nearby American cemetery…. 9387 graves, marked with simple white crosses and stars, each with a name, rank, home state, and date of death. It was a tranquil and very moving place, the graves perfectly lined in their simplicity—a long way from home. Some crosses had no name… just the inscription “Here rests in honored glory a Comrade in Arms, known but to God.”
We walked quietly among the graves, looking at the names and the states, saying some personal prayers, wondering if we were connected with anyone buried here. One grave held a big bouquet of new flowers—the date of death July 3, 1944… 62 years ago today.
