It rained like hell during the night and the sound of the drops on the roof of the van reminded me of being a young boy under canvas in the scouts, it made last night feel like proper camping, like an adventure, it also mildly pissed me off because I was knackered.
Today I was to explore a stretch of the Normandy coastline I had been yearning to see for many years, in
particular 5 bays along a stretch of coast from Montebourg to Ouistreham or Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword as they would latter become know after their code-names used during Operation Overlord in 1944. That's right today was the day I get to see the D-day landing beaches, it may not be that big a deal for some people but for me it is an attainable bucket list tick.
I started with Gold, a beach stormed by the Americans, moved on to Juno, taken by the largely uncredited and under-strength Canadians, it turns out that Canada as a country is fiercely proud of this fact and the visitors centre is staffed by French speaking Canadians whom have to fight of tough opposition to earn a 12 month contract there, it is somewhat of a dream job for Canadian college leavers it appears. I followed up with a walk along Sword beach famously captured by the Brits, the weird bit is that on the surface these stretches of sand appear no different to any other, war memorial aside and ignore the odd tank or gun placement and you could easily be on Westward Ho! Beach, Saunton sands or Widemouth bay, the crux is you know they are different, you know that with each step you cover ground on which blood was spilled in part of the largest conflict the world has ever or hopefully will ever see. There is a deserved quiet about the beaches, I'm guessing, the by now grey, skies helped set the mood but the whole area gives off an aura of respectful pride.
I didn't make it further up the coast to Utah or Omaha because there was another site I wanted to visit before the day was done, if you don't know it let me tell you the story of Merville, I'll be as brief as I can.
Before the D-day landings the allies made other attempts on the Normandy coast but met with failure, the most notable being an attack on Dieppe, Dieppe is a high-walled harbour and at the time had artillery placements, many infantry encampments and both sea and air defences, a veritable fortress worthy of such an important sea way. It was attacked head on by landing craft manned with ill fated Canadians who where engaged and several boats were sunk before they even reached the harbour, the infantry and tank support due to meet them on the shore was delayed by other defences and those who made it ashore didn't last long. Many lives were lost and many lessons were learned.
Merville served as the artillery and anti-aircraft placement to defend Sword and Juno beaches from a similar attack from the allies, a plan was hatched for the battery at Merville to be rendered useless the day before the D-day landings and 9 Para were deemed the boys to get the job done. The 9th parachute regiment formed part of the 6th airborne brigade and some 700 men were dispatched in Dakota twin prop planes (they have a Dakota at the memorial with "SNAFU squadron " on the nose and it occurred to me how many of the people that see that know what it means ?!) to drop over Caen and take the battery overnight. Unfortunately due to adverse wind and the need to avoid anti-aircraft fire the 700 men were scattered over a 40 mile radius, sadly many of them died in purposely flooded fields, drowning after being weighed done by their kit and many were captured, only 100 made it to the rendezvous point at the allotted time, the young officer in charge did what anybody would do, he waited 15 minutes. In that time another 50 men arrived.
Merville battery was heavily guarded, over 150 German soldiers were entrenched in concrete bunkers with machine guns, mortars and hidden behind steel doors and feet of concrete walls.
The Paras pressed on, determined to finish the job, they crossed razor wire perimeter fences and mine fields to take on the Germans, it was all over by 3am. Of the 150 Paras a further 75 were killed or seriously injured but of the 150 Germans only 20 remained alive to surrender. Against the odds, job done.
They say that for every life lost at Dieppe 10 were saved during the D-day landings thanks to the lessons learned and implemented in no small part by the men of 9 Para at Merville.
As I walked around the battery site and along the sandy stretches that were once battle fields it struck me that I was proud to have come here and that when people talk of these places in the future I will be proud to say then that I have been there and paid my respects.
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