NORMANDY-IT IS MORE THAN A PLACE

If you visit Normandy, read this and you will better understand. The Normandy invasion was the largest single military operation this planet has ever seen. Its significance could be the greatest single event in our civilization to date. The mass of men and material probably could not be replicated other than the sense of purpose. And this was but a small portion of the much larger efforts going on elsewhere-the Pacific, the Mediterranean and Russia. Despite its rather minor resourcing compared to the whole, its outcome would largely determine the future of the entire effort.

The passage of time has done little to diminish the significance of the invasion. If anything, its magnitude in human, physical and strategic import has been better appreciated. Without Normandy, there would likely have been a far different Europe and United States than we know today.

The appreciation of Normandy can be felt in two ways-the People and the Place. The People were the veterans who landed here and the civilian population they liberated. The veterans returned yearly to visit and to walk the long white marble rows of the Cemetery at Omaha and commune with their buddies who couldn’t go back home. They walk the terrain where they fought and mingle with the ghosts in their mind.

Initially, they came in droves and represented all the ranks from senior generals to privates. Now the ranks are almost empty with an occasional ex-17 or 18 year old private reminiscing with much younger visitors. If they listen carefully, the tourists will learn something not written and sense the deep human emotions felt by each soldier who served that day. They all knew they were part of something of over-arching significance and were exceptionally proud that chance placed them there. Their memories are primarily of the soldiers with whom they served but there is an underlay of the immense stage on which they played. For one brief moment, all were stars and all were heroes-never to be repeated. These were ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

The other people were the French whom they liberated. This is a part of France that is far from the culture and lights of Hollywood France. It is not Paris or Marseille or the warm wine hills of Burgundy and Bordeaux. But it is France and they were the first to be free that cold windy 6 June 1944. And they have not forgotten. A visit to Point Du Hoc, Omaha Beach, St Mere Eglise, Pegasus Bridge, Ouistreham and the various National cemeteries will find copious numbers of local Normans and school children paying homage to the debt they feel they owe.

It is a sincere visit. If uniformed soldiers are spotted or the obvious veteran, the children will gather around and ask questions and quiz each other on arcane D Day facts. They care as did their parents and grandparents. It is unlike the rest of France.

The Invasion is current events. The elementary school in St Mere Eglise and the area High Schools all teach of the invasion and its significance for their predecessors. Every D Day, hundreds of children present songs and poems at each ceremonial location in honor of the soldiers who fought and died there. Every small village in the peninsula that saw action has a memorial club and celebrates each anniversary with a town remembrance followed by a lunch or dinner with the modern-day US, British and German soldiers. If there is a vet available, he will be royally treated, given a front row seat and asked to participate in the wreath laying to the monument that each town has for the specific unit and personality that liberated them that day.

Today, the anniversary period is so huge that a large part of the French military and foreign service is engaged. Over a million visitors crowd into the area during the week of events to observe the huge array of memorial ceremonies. These range from the President of France at Utah Beach to the President of the United States at Omaha-with hundreds of lesser stops at all the small villages and isolated farm yards where soldiers came-some to depart and many to stay behind. They are graciously and sincerely remembered.

The city of St Mere Eglise, arguably the first town liberated on D Day, has done two things that epitomize the depth of feeling and generosity of spirit toward their liberators. The city heraldry, drawn literally some thousand years ago, was changed in 1946 to reflect the recent events. One of the stained glass windows in the church, made famous by the movie, The Longest Day, depicts the new town seal. It is that of an 82d Airborne paratrooper descending from the sky into a burning town square.

Every year, the town hosts active duty and reserve soldiers en masse. Beginning with the 40th anniversary, the town has accepted the soldiers into their homes as billets and fed them for the entire period-usually a full week. A soldier cannot buy a drink or a meal without a French family paying the tab. Recently, this has included airborne soldiers from England and Germany-now a NATO Partner. St Mere Eglise would be considered a poor rural small town of no particular note but for the immensity of its spirit and generosity. This is not a commercial enterprise. It is led by no one but by everyone.

The physical place of Normandy is equally unique. The population of Place descends from Caesar’s Legions and Viking raiders. They are quick to point out they are not Metropolitan French. They are hefty, strong, hard-working farmers and small business people with strong appetites and equally generous hearts. The relative poverty and isolation of the land has caused much of the battle sites to be near exactly as they were on D Day. There is no parking lot covering Antietam here.

The route up the cliffs to the right of Omaha taken by a platoon of desperate Rangers is easily spotted as are the trench works and bunkers once filled by the 352d German infantry division. If you walk to the edge of the cliff at Point Du Hoc and look back, you will see what ISgt Lem Lomell saw as he led the 2d Ranger Battalion up those cliffs. The only difference at Brecourt Manor, famous for The Band of Brothers, is the missing artillery pieces. Precisely where they were, is instantly recognizable. La Fiere Bridge, the location of what the Official US Military Historian called “the bloodiest combat per square foot in the war,” is almost exactly as it was less the casualties covering most of the visible ground. At Neuville au Plaine, one can precisely see the ground and its effect on combat as Lt Turner Turnbull and his platoon held off a regiment the morning of 6 June 1944 and in so doing, saved the 82d Airborne.

Throughout this land, there are isolated markers, memorials and plaques. Each indicating a particular unit or persons who fought and died for that land so far away from their own. These were placed by both US military and local French over time. The Normans now tend them full time. Throughout the year they clean the grass, wash the monument and place flowers by it. Many are in very isolated, hard to reach places-Cpl DeGlopper, KIA, won a Congressional Medal of Honor at this site 8 June 1944. LTC Timmes occupied this orchard 6 June 1944. PFC Marcus Heim won a Distinguished Service Cross stopping three German Tanks. Aid Station 505PIR 6-9 June 1944. Largest military cemetery in the world 1944-1946.

These monuments are largely lost to all but the family that own the land. Regardless, when found by the dedicated tourist, they will be clean, repainted, re-mortared and usually with flowers. Very few people will know that but that is irrelevant to the family that tends the ground where others once stood.

The lack of physical interference since 1944 allows the visitor to become much more deeply engaged by events that occurred at a given piece of land. One can easily visualize where the combatants were, how the ground effected the action and where casualties were bound to lie. No one who visits Normandy leaves without knowing that this is a special place, made so by special people. Ordinary people but with something that caused extraordinary service. As you walk with the ghosts, listen to them, learn something-both about them and about yourself.