The Beaches of Normandy

Point-du-Hoc, Omaha, Utah, Sword, Juno, and Gold.   These beaches hosted a great slaughter and the sacrifice of young men.  We retraced the footsteps of the men on two of the beaches:  Point-du-Hoc and Omaha.

Point-du-Hoc:

Point-du-Hoc, a point of land on Normandy's coast, it possesses cliffs that are simply massive.  In June of 1944, it also housed many artillery guns, able to introduce a completely deadly havoc on invaders on Omaha beach.  The US sent a team of 225 American Rangers to destroy the guns.

 They scaled the towering cliffs.  When on man fell, another assumed his place.  Rifles slung over their strong but sweating backs, they sunk their K-bar knifes into the top of the cliffs and hauled themselves over the great obstacle.  But, when they arrived, they found no guns.  Two Rangers continued through the organized bedlam and bullets singing songs of death to find the monsters.

Poking their heads over a hedgerow, they found themselves face to face with the artillery guns all trained on Omaha beach, but, as yet, unmanned.  They destroyed them using thermite grenades and headed back to the force defending the point from numerous counter-attack.

That morning saw only 90 of the original 225 men were able to handle a rifle.

But, they had taken and held their objective.

On D-Day, these craters were twice as deep!

An artillery bunker

Omaha:

The slaughter-house of the American invasion.  Approximately 2,000 casualties.


Most know the story, so I am not going to relate it, but read it anyway.  In one week, the desires and guns of selfish man, slashed a hole in an entire generation.  That is sobering.

70 years ago, American soldiers struggled through this same water...

Sprinting across this and more with 90 lbs. of equipment and while under heavy machine gun fire was deadly. 

The memorial on Omaha

The American cemetery on Omaha beach:

Real people are buried beneath every one of these crosses.  They felt the cold, icy rain sting their nose as they ran from the mess tent to their sleeping areas.  They marveled, and wondered in awe at inspiring sunsets.  They savored delicious food.  They loathed those who dared to disrupt and endanger their homeland.  They loved their wives and children.  They knew courage.

Every cross.  A mason formed every cross with care.  But, how much more development went into the body and mind of each man laid to rest under a white, marble cross?  How is it possible that so much beauty, and each one did have individual, and unique beauty, could be destroyed in so short and miserable a time?

We, every noble American and European, must go on with life after a catastrophe such as this, yes, but does that mean we forget those who gave us a life to go on with, those who sacrificed all?

In the end, I think the book responsible for a cross above each body, as opposed to a rock or such like, has the best answer.

"There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:

2-8 A right time for birth and another for death,
A right time to plant and another to reap,
A right time to kill and another to heal,
A right time to destroy and another to construct,
A right time to cry and another to laugh,
A right time to lament and another to cheer,
A right time to make love and another to abstain,
A right time to embrace and another to part,
A right time to search and another to count your losses,
A right time to hold on and another to let go,
A right time to rip out and another to mend,
A right time to shut up and another to speak up,
A right time to love and another to hate,
A right time to wage war and another to make peace.

9-13 But in the end, does it really make a difference what anyone does? I’ve had a good look at what God has given us to do—busywork, mostly. True, God made everything beautiful in itself and in its time—but he’s left us in the dark, so we can never know what God is up to, whether he’s coming or going. I’ve decided that there’s nothing better to do than go ahead and have a good time and get the most we can out of life. That’s it—eat, drink, and make the most of your job. It’s God’s gift."                   -Ecclesiastes 3 (The Message)

Go and remember,

     -Soren