On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
frosty
Our second day in Normandy was a visit to Arromanches and Gold, Juno, and Sword Beaches. On our third day, we saw the American beaches: Omaha and Utah.
In the sea offshore of Arromanches, we saw the remnants of the “Mulberries” – the artificial docks that were built in England, towed across the Channel, and sunk to build the port so supplies and reinforcements could be landed. Twenty of the original 115 are still there.
This is the German Longues-sur-Mer battery, which had four 150 mm guns like this one with a range of 12 miles.
This outside exhibit at Le Grande Bunker Musee in Ouistreham is a Higgins boat (landing craft) that brought the troops to shore.
Pointe du Hoc, a rocky headland, had to be taken because intelligence said the Germans had placed artillery overlooking Omaha Beach.
Pointe du Hoc. The defenses were bombed, shelled and then attacked by 225 US Rangers, who scaled the 100-ft rock wall and took the bunkers to find the guns had been dismantled and hidden inland. Only 90 rangers were still standing when it was over. Bomb and shell craters still pockmark the area.
Omaha Beach was the site of the most intense fighting and highest US casualties.
The first wave included the 29th Infantry Division, made up of National Guard troops, which is why this monument to the US National Guard is at Omaha.
Utah Beach was less well defended. Casualties were lighter, in part because of the success of the airborne troops in cutting routes for German reinforcements before the landing.
This was taken on a weekend, and the beach, even historical, is still a beach.
Raven
My dad was a “signalman “ on a destroyer in the Pacific and one of his duties was to man one of the 30 caliber machine guns on an lcpr (early Higgins type landing craft with a narrow ramp that allowed one man at a time to disembark). When Private Ryan came out he explained that they got so sick at Normandy because it’s so shallow and they had to anchor to get in the boats so much further out than on the islands. We’re in a hotel at Patriot Point, South Carolina and the “Laffey” a DD that landed troops that day is moored next to the Kitty Hawk. flic.kr/p/2m4N5fK
Raven
Laffey immediately prepared for the invasion of France. On 3 June, she headed for the Normandy beaches escorting tugs, landing craft, and two Dutch gunboats. The group arrived in the assault area, off Utah beach, Baie de la Seine, France, at dawn on D-Day, 6 June 1944. On 6–7 June, Laffey screened to seaward, and on 8–9 June, she successfully bombarded gun emplacements. Leaving the screen temporarily, Laffey raced to Plymouth to replenish and returned to the coast of Normandy the next day. On 12 June, pursuing enemy E-boats that had torpedoed the destroyer Nelson, Laffey broke up their tight formation, preventing further attacks.
Raven
The story of the lost footage of d-day.
OzarkHillbilly
The History Guy: Rangers and the 116th Infantry Regiment: D-DAY+2
As per his usual practice, less than 15 mins.
Lapassionara
Thanks for the post and these informative comments.
Raven
Did I say “Kitty Hawk”?? It’s the Yorktown.
Mike in NC
That landing craft isn’t a wooden Higgins boat (LCVP). It’s a metal LCM-3.
Jude
Casualties were also light at Utah because the GIs landed in the wrong place. If they’d gone ashore where they planned, they likely would have had a tougher go. Not so bad as Omaha, mind you, but still bad.
The assistant CG for the US 4th ID on June 6th, 1944?
One Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. Yes, THAT Theodore Roosevelt. He was 56 at the time and the oldest man to go ashore on D-Day as well as the only general to land in the first wave. His son ALSO landed on D-Day, but at Omaha. TR Jr hid how badly his arthritis was hurting him so he could land with his men.
They don’t really make presidential offspring like that anymore, do they?
Yutsano
@Jude: The Roosevelt family line still exists. I am totally okay if one of them starts making noises in New York politics* again.
*am unaware if any of them still live in New York.
Xavier
You don’t mention anything about unexploded ordinance. When I was visiting El Alamein in the 60s you were very careful to stay on established paths…
Jude
@Xavier: There’s a much greater incentive to clear UO near a big tourist attraction than there is to the west of a sleepy seaside Egyptian town in the trackless desert.
frosty
@Jude: IIRC when TR found out they landed in the wrong place he gave some thought to moving where the next wave was going to land, and said “We’ll start the war from here.” and had all the subsequent waves land where he was.
One good reason to have a general on the beach.
J R in WV
Great photos, ,thanks for sharing.
I think it would be very distracting to tour the sites of combat amid beach parties, umbrellas, coolers full of wine and beer. Such a contrast between the current reality and the historic reality. But still interesting, and kind of amusing too.
mrmoshpotato
Thanks again, frosty. Looking forward to tomorrow.
Geminid
@Jude: Theodore Roosevelt Jr. served with the 4th Division through four weeks of the grueling Normandy campaign. He died of a heart attack on July 12.
Roosevelt was an Army officer in the First World War, and had a brief career in the New York State Assembly before serving as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under Harding and Coolidge.
Andrew
I visited the beaches in 2019, ahead of the 75th anniversary observances. I started in Arromanches and went west. Was hoping to avoid the larger crowds of anniversary week–I was there in May–but didn’t succeed, so I ended up missing most of the D-Day museums. But I did see the beaches, and also toured a German gun emplacement high and well back from Omaha Beach.
I think the people on the beach add to the meaning of what the Allies did that day. Sure, they are on hallowed ground–but it was won back so that people could go the beach and enjoy their time off again, instead of living under Nazi occupation.
frosty
@Mike in NC: Interesting. I don’t know if the museum got it wrong or I misread something.
Raven
@frosty: Other people got it wrong as well