Phil’s day: We visited the scene of the landings by the American,
British and Canadian armies in Normandy on 6 June 1944 to begin the liberation
of Europe. The landings took place on five beaches designated Utah (US), Omaha
(US), Gold (British), Juno (Canadian) and Sword (British). We first visited the
town of Aromanches which lies in the middle of Gold Beach and visited the D Day
Museum. The Museum is filled with all sorts of exhibits of weapons, uniforms
and other items from the invasion as well as many graphic photos of the
fighting.
We then visited Omaha Beach which was the scene of the very
worst fighting on 6 June and the following days. So much went wrong for the
Americans. The aerial and naval bombardments preceding the landings were badly
inaccurate and fires in the grain fields created by these actions created dense
smoke which obscured the German positions on the cliffs above the beach and
prevented the warships from improving the accuracy of their fire. So the
American troops ran into heavy fire. To make it worse the Navy had to try and
land 32 support tanks in water that was too deep and 27 sank. So the troops had
no effective artillery or armoured support as they tried to scale the five
narrow approaches to the cliffs. Casualties were massive, as is evident from
the cemetery at the American memorial at Omaha Beach which contains 9388
graves.
Some things worked well. The allies had built two floating
artificial harbours, called Mulberry Harbours, which they towed from England
and settled on the sea bed at Omaha and Gold beaches. The remains of the
Mulberry Harbours are still very visible from both beaches. But for all the
successes the loss of life and limb was appalling and I hope we never have to see
its like again.
Photo 1: tank used in the invasion.
Photo 2: remans of Mulberry Harbour B at Gold Beach.
Photo 3: Omaha Beach is 8 km long!
Photo 4 graves at the American memorial at Omaha Beach.
Photo 5: German bunker.
Photo 6: American memorial.
No comments:
Post a Comment