Bayeux, France, Normandy region and D-day tour

I have always been fascinated by WWII and D-Day. So it was a full day tour to Omaha Beach where the Americans landed and Sword Beach where the British landed.  There were five total beaches of Utah, Omaha, Juno, Gold and Sword spread along 60 km of coastline for D-Day. War is not the prettiest sites to see, but momentous in its change on history.

bunker complex of Nazi Germans

The picture at the left is the bluff where Nazi German gun placements were supposedly located. US Rangers had to scale and take the battery in 30 minutes. The guns were able to fire 15 miles and were a threat to ships and the landing.

Observation bunker on bluff

So the pictures above are the bluffs and down the beach which is you can NOT see in the picture above is Omaha Beach which is the picture on the right. This beach produced the most horrific causalities of the landings on D-Day. Behind this lady running is a Nazi German bunker that destroyed numerous American Tanks.If you look at the end of the path on the right is another bunker and then look on the right in the picture the base of the flagpole. You will see what appears to be a square hole and that is another bunker. All the bunkers face down the beach which is Omaha to be protected from Naval bombardment. So none of these bunkers suffered any direct hits and were all active during the landing.

The left-hand picture is looking from the bunkers in the above picture to  Omaha Beach were the Americans were landing. Looks nice now and has been a resort area for many years even before the war. Fortunately not far from this site on the beach the Americans broke through because of the following factors: the cliffs collapsed from the bombardment, fortunately a group of US Rangers were at the spot who were supposed to be reinforcements, the spot was a blind spot for the bunkers, US engineers were in the area to blow a bigger hole, and the Rangers led the infantry up the hill to create a beachhead, there were no Nazi German reinforcements or counter-attack, and General Rommel was away visiting his girlfriend.

Still, the tragedy of war is all over this area as judged by the cemeteries.
 Here is the cemetery seen in Saving Private Ryan and it is an immense American cemetery sitting above a portion of Omaha Beach.





In afternoon, I visited the British landing zone that includes soldiers from the British Commonwealth.  Here is a key Nazi gun placement that was fought over and then the cemeteries.

Sly, nickname of our tour guide

Nazi artillery in taken by British soldiers for D-Day

Immense bunker sites for the Artillery