Remember...

[guillaume78150]

Back from a short trip to Normandie.



This the beach of Colleville sur Mer. As you maybe guessed, it is better known as Omaha Beach.
Strange to think such a peaceful and almost deserted place was the theater of one of the fiercest fight of WWII.





Colleville is the place of one of the biggest (maybe the biggest) american military cemetary.
I was there as a child (I was born in Caen, long ago...) but I forgot the place is beyond any description.



It covers an area of 170 acres (70 hectares). The place belongs to the US so that 9,387 men and women fallen in Normandy can rest on American soil. 4 women and 307 unknown are numbered.
(This cemetery is managed by the American Battle Monuments Commission.)



Visible in the distance, the cliffs before Port en Bessin. Gold Beach is just behind.
A few miles away to the west is another place.







It's true the german guns had been removed the month before and batteries were empty but they had been moved 1 miles behind and were aimed at Omaha Beach.
Fortunately, they were not guarded and were destroyed at the site.

The USS Texas, anchored less than 2 mi away from the bank, fired more than 250 shells on german positions.
Results are still clearly visible…



The day after, I went to the Caen Memorial.
If you come to Normandie, don't miss it. We spent more than 3 hours and had to leave at the closing hour before finishing the visite.





Something positive, the different sites are crowded and by people coming from everywhere in the world.
May we never forget.

[BrettT]

What an incredible set of pictures! Thank you for sharing!

[mattgn]

As an HM Forces vet, I have nothing but huge admiration and respect for everyone that was involved in Op Overlord.
I was terrified at times doing what I had to do, but the courage they all showed, regardless of nationality, makes me feel very small indeed.

I went to Normandy as a young teenager with my school, but I have every plan to visit Normandy again in the near future, as I now have a far better idea of what it took to do what they did.

Great post, great pics, thanks for that.

Regards
Matt

[guillaume78150]

I learned something at the Memorial,
"Overlord" was the Europe invasion code name, the landing on the beaches was the operation "Neptune".

[Lewis - A2A]

Good stuff, thanks for such beautiful images and as you say glad to see so many people around that its always busy

cheers,
Lewis

[JJB17463rdBombGroup]

I met a WWII combat veteran who was there on Omaha beach about a week ago on one of my daily exercise rides.
He was in a motorized wheelchair but otherwise was in good spirits when I talked to him for a few minutes.
Thanks for the very interesting photographs.

[ImpendingJoker]

I was raised in Houston, and have visited the BB-35 USS Texas many times. She is the only "floating" dreadnaught style battleship today(if you call what she does floating) she is also the only battleship to serve in both WWI and WWII. After supporting this invasion she went to support the landing in Okinawa where her poor vertical deflection of her guns didn't allow her to fire up into the mountains. The captain flooded her port ballast tanks and listed her to port while aiming the guns to max. This allowed her to fire at the firing positions high in the mountains. Bonus fact she is one of two New York class battleships but had many improvements over her sister USS New York, and at one time they both had hull mounted torpedo launchers that were removed during the refit before WWII where extra AAA guns were added. Love me some USS Texas.

[Alan_A]

Am posting from London, where on Saturday night I saw a West End production of David Haig's play "Pressure," about James Stagg, the RAF meteorologist responsible for the D-Day forecast (and for making the case for the postponement from June 5 to June 6). Really strong work, and it was very nice to see a sold-out house and a standby line out front. The audience was almost entirely too young to have a living memory of the invasion - but they were there nonetheless. The story lives on.

[shermank]

I was there in the summer of 2015 with several members of my VA DC3 Airways. It was a wonderful and moving experience, enabled by our flightsim hobby and the opportunity to meet and make true friendships with others, no matter where they might be

Sherm

[MarcE]

Great pictures!

Despite the horror which happened on that beach and during the war I would like to remind everyone of the many german soldiers too that are forgot so easily being the bad guys. The vast majority of the gun carrying soldiers haven't been Nazis nor have they had any clue about what was actually going on in the concentration camps. Most of them have been victims of Hitler's and Goebbels' propaganda machinery. Computer games and movies tend to show a cruel picture but most of them had simply no choice. They were sat there with a machine gun and were told about all the horror stories about the "evil and torturing Americans" and had to fight for their lives, just as every other poor man had to in this war. And they knew if they had tried to flee they would have been shot immediately... This war has only seen victims. Except a hand ful in Berlin and on the Obersalzberg. And several commanding officers for sure..

All that happened such a long time ago, not long until it's a century.. But still, seeing these pictures makes one feel weak in the stomach...