THE PRICE OF FREEDOM

After being in France for almost nine months, we finally made our trip to the D-Day beaches. We had been to Le Memorial de Caen on an earlier trip but did not make it to the beaches. Le Memorial de Caen is the best museum of D-Day and the WW II in the area and is outstanding.

To enhance our visit we decided to splurge and use a tour company and selected BattleBus (www.battlebus.fr). We would highly recommend them and their website is very informtive

We selected the one day American tour only because we did not have time to do the British and Canadian beaches. Our tour started on the very western end of the invasion area in the town of Ste-Mere-Eglise. This was a critical town that was assigned to the 101st Airborne division to seal off the invasion beaches from German counter attacks. In the picture below our guide Dale is explaining the overall map of the invasion area.

Ste-Mere-Eglise is famous because it was the first town liberated by the Allies and because paratrooper John Steele dangled on the church tower for several hours before the Germans realized he was not dead and took him prisoner.

Inside the church are several stained glass windows that commemorate the liberation by the Allies.

The best aspects of our guided tour were the stops off the beaten path. We stopped at an ancient church in Angoville-au-Pain where two American medics treated Americans, Germans and a civilian while a three day battle raged back and forth in the village outside. The bloodstains were still visible on the pews.

The church and memorial were donated and are sustained by a village of only 43 people as a tribute to their liberators. Below is one of the new stained glass windows in this 11th century Norman church.

The first beach we visited was Utah where General Theodore Roosevelt Jr, son of the President won a Congressional Medal of Honor. Here is a picture of Meghan looking out of the remains of a machine gun nest.

Our next stop was Point du Hoc where 225 US Army Rangers scaled the cliffs to capture the German artillery that commanded both Utah and Omaha beaches. They took the cliff and repulsed counterattacks for two days. By the time reinforcements arrived, more than half the Rangers were dead or wounded. The site, under US government jurisdiction, has been preserved almost exactly as it was at that time. The gaping bomb craters, shattered concrete bunkers and rolls of barbed wire can still be seen. Here you can see some of the devastation.

In this picture, Meghan is descending into one of the bomb craters.

Omaha beach was also known as “Bloody Omaha.” Here our guide explains the firepower that the Germans were able to concentrate on the beach. You can see the wide expanse of the beach that the GI's had to cross into this muderous gun fire.

Click here to hear Dale explain the invasion.

This picture is from the top of the bluff. It is the view a German machine gunner had as the troops came across the beach. It was a completely open field of fire.

Our day ended at the US Military Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer. It holds the remains of 9,386 American soldiers. An additional 14,000 who died on the beaches were flown back to the US. The cemetery is a huge expanse of green with row upon row of white crosses and Stars of David.

It is incredible to see this evidence of all the men and four women who gave their lives to preserve our freedom. You have to experience it yourself. Since this was the end of the day, Susie was able to capture the lowering of the flag ceremony. Nothing I could say would close this emotional day better than this picture.

.....and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

2 Corinthians 3:17