Bayeux and the D-Day Beaches

Monday, October 13, 2014

Our first stop today was in Bayeux, a town quite close to the Normandy beaches and the first town to be liberated after the D-Day landings.  Because a local priest had gotten word to the Allies that there were no Germans headquartered there, a bombing raid was canceled and the town was spared.  Our primary reason for visiting was to see the world's most famous embroidery, the Bayeux Tapestry, which is housed in its own museum.  About 70 yards long, the wool-on-linen masterpiece tells the story of the conquest of the Saxons by William, Duke of Normandy after William's cousin Harold seized the English throne, which William was to have inherited.  William rallied his cavalry, commissioned the building of a flotilla, had everyone suited up in chain mail, secured the blessing of his half-brother the bishop, and set sail -- men, horses, weapons, supplies, and bishop -- to wrest power from Harold.  The battle was joined at Hastings in 1066, Harold met his end, and William the Bastard became known as William the Conqueror.  This entire story is told in vivid pictorial detail in the numbered panels of the Tapestry, which runs like a very long comic strip (OK, graphic novel) in an equally long Plexiglass case.  As we walked along the long U-shaped exhibit hall, an excellent audio guide described each scene -- and kept the visitors moving. Elsewhere in the museum, a short film provided more context and detail. What began as something that we felt we "should" do turned out to be an excellent experience, and one we'd recommend to others. (No pictures were allowed of this ~1000 year old masterpiece.)

The intended home of the tapestry Bayeux's Cathedral of Notre Dame, which is just a block away from the museum.  The Romanesque and Gothic church is lovely, with a long narrow nave,tiers of soaring arches, ribbed ceiling vaulting, lots of tall Gothic windows, two organs, and a beautiful choir.  At one time, the tapestry ran up and down the length of the nave, providing an historical narrative for the faithful whose minds might wander from less-than-stirring homilies.

A short drive from Bayeux brought us to the coast, where our first stop was the American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer.  The Cemetery, Memorial, and Museum occupy a beautiful spot overlooking the Channel at Omaha Beach.  Our dear friend, Mary Ryan, had asked if we'd visit the headstone of her uncle, SSGT John J. Kolczynski, who was 29 years old when he was killed during the protracted battle to take the nearby town of St. Lo.  We'd found information about the location of St. Kolczynski's grave online before leaving home, but it was readily available at computer terminals set up for to search the databases of those interred at many American military cemeteries around the world.  As we walked to the far end of the cemetery, the enormity of the sacrifices our soldiers and their families made was inescapable.  Row upon row of crosses and Stars of David, pristine white marble against the deep green lawn -- 9,387 graves and 1,557 names of those whose bodies were never found engraved in the Garden of the Missing -- it would be impossible to be unmoved by the experience of walking among them.  We were honored to pay tribute to one young man whose family still remembers him.

The cemetery and other monuments in the area are maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission.  Their meticulous care for these resting places and memorials is extraordinary; everything is designed and maintained with dignity, precision, and simple beauty.  As it should be.

We also visited an adjacent site of a German blockhouse that was taken by a brigade of combat engineers, who are honored there now.  Further along the beautiful, long stretch of Omaha Beach, we were able to actually walk along the water's edge.

At Pointe du Hoc, the German gun emplacements still stand atop the sheer cliffs that Army Rangers scaled, with great loss of life.  The Rangers took the point, where coiled barbed wire still lines the cliffs and deep bomb craters mark the land around the German batteries.

Our last stop was as Arromanches-Les-Bains, where the remains of some of the components of the artificial harbor the British towed across the Channel are still very visible, close to shore and in the distance.

As we traveled along the coastal road, we thought about what the little towns we passed through had witnessed during the occupation and then, as the Allies arrived.  In Colleville-sur-Mer, the church and several other buildings display large black and white billboard-sized photographs of townspeople greeting their liberators 70 years ago in front of those same buildings. Throughout the day, we saw American flags everywhere; it seems as if the past is very present here...

So, for us, it was two trans-Channel invasions in one day.  The Normans headed toward England in 1066, and, almost 900 years later,  the Allies arrived here from England.