This visit deserves a separate entry. We moved on to Normandy. This was a very sobering experience. A time to remember the sacrifices of many young Americans on June 6, 1944. The cemetery is immaculate, as it should be. There are over 9000 buried from Operation Overlord. There are over 1500 that could not be found that are also buried here.

The missing have been claimed by the English Channel. The headstones are in perfect alignment. We walked down to the beach. The sand was so fine. I could just imagine the soldiers storming the beach. They were wet, sea sick, full of sand, loaded with combat gear, and heading into murderous machine gun fire, for what looked to be a ¼ of a mile uphill. The entire operation was over 60 miles long. This shot is from the perspective of the German soldier. Except, the growth had been cut down to achieve an effective killing zone.

This was from the perspective of the American soldier. For at least a l/4 of a mile, they headed into machine gun fire. For many their last day of a short life ended here.

There are 41 sets of brothers buried together, at Normandy. There is one father and son. The Niland bothers, who are buried here, were the fictionalized subject of Saving Private Ryan.

The 4 brothers joined the army together. Two were killed at Normandy. The third was believed to be killed in the Pacific. The fourth was removed from Normandy and sent home. It was too much for any one family to take. The brother missing in Pacific was later found alive in a POW camp.

We visited a number of the small towns along the invasion sector. There is one cemetery after another - British, Canadians, and Germans. Inland was another American cemetery in Saint James. There are thousands more Americans buried there. We stopped off at Point Du Hoc. This is where the Rangers scaled the cliff. Their mission was to knock out the 155 mm artillery emplacements. When they final got there, the weapons had been removed.

One platoon leader described his beach landing, before scaling the cliff, pictured below. When he got on the beach, he was the only one walking. The other 36 were dead or wounded.

This one visit will be what I will remember most about Europe. To see the many grave sites with the same date of death, like other major battle sites, leaves an eerie feeling.

Our next stop was Montendre, France. This is where Renee and I grew up in 1956-1958.