Dateline: The Beaches of Normandy Saturday 23rd April 2011

We drive just over 100km NE towards the coast of France arriving at Pegasus Bridge and the Memorial Museum.  
It was here at  midnight of 5th June 1944, as D-Day began, that a British gliderborne unit landed to secure the bridge across the Caen Canal.  It was vital for the success of the Normandy invasion that they hold this bridge intact and prevent the Germans from crossing the canal and attacking the eastern flank of the troops landing on the beaches.

Trivia: 

The original Pegasus Bridge

* Richard Todd, the actor who was later to play the role of the commander of this operation in the movie "The Longest Day",  was actually a member of the reinforcement parachute team which landed 30 minutes after the initial assault. 
* Many of the details of the movie are inaccurate and some liberties were taken nevertheless it is probably the only movie to tell the whole story of the Normandy landings.
* Pegasus is a type of movable bridge which can roll back to open.  The original is now owned by the museum.

A mock up of the type of glider used

Next we drive to the Merville Battery.  
The Merville Gun Battery was a German coastal fortification in Normandy, France in use as part of the Nazi's Atlantic wall built to defend continental Europe from Allied invasion. It was a particularly heavily fortified position and one of the first places to be attacked by Allied forces on D-Day.
The battery overlooked the British invasion area of Sword Beach, and as it was believed to contain four 150 mm guns, it was a serious threat to the Allied landings. It consisted of a bunker containing the battery's command post, two blockhouses, a light flak emplacement and four casemates each containing one of the artillery pieces. Each of these casemates was reinforced concrete, six and a half feet thick with a further six feet of soil above; since these could only be destroyed by an unlikely direct hit from the heaviest of ordnance, it was decided that British paratroopers would attack and destroy the guns a few hours before the landings at Sword Beach began. The 9th Battalion of The Parachute Regiment was selected for the task.
 Inside one of the bunkers we see a very realistic re-enactment using sounds and light of what took place on the night of 5th and 6th June 1944.  109 Lancaster bombers dropped more than 1000 bombs on the battery at 30 mins past 12.  There is a warning that it is not recommended for anyone of a nervous disposition.
This photo shows the "SNAFU Special", a Douglas C-47 which took part in all airborne missions in Europe during WWII.  It was left behind in Sarajevo and brought to Merville in 2007.
Trivia:  In modern usage, snafu is often used to refer to a bad situation or mistake.  It is believed to have originated in the US Army during WWII ... situation normal. all f...... up.  It is a cynical reference to the military practice of soldiers reporting to their officer "situation normal".
 

The remains of the harbour

We move on to Gold Beach where the landing was set for 7:25am.   The tide was higher than expected due to a strong wind.  The explosive devices the Germans had installed were covered by water and British demolition teams could not get to them.   Twenty of the landing craft struck the mines and were damaged however due to the naval bombardment the British were able to secure the beach and move inland.

The Mulberry harbours were a secret Allied project set up right after the landings, centered on the Norman seaside towns of Arromanches at the very western end of Gold beach and Vierville sur Mer at the Western end of Omaha beach. These harbours were constructed secretly in England, the builders totally unaware of what they were constructing.  Composed mainly of hollow concrete caissons, brought over from England on D-Day, they provided the main supply ports for the Landings.

Wartime poster

The Canadian memorial

Our final stop is Juno.  This beach was assigned to a Candian Infantry and they too had over 30% of their landing crafts destroyed by mines.  They suffered many casualties in the first assault but were able to reach the German positions behind the beach and moved rapidly inland to their designated target.