April 9, 2026

There is so much to say about this day – I have to start somewhere! We chose to go with Martin for this tour. We have had him as a guide several times already and he did the WWII lecture so we knew how deep his historical knowledge goes.

The trip to the beaches from Rouen takes 2 1/2 hours so there was lots of time for commentary. We learned that gas is very expensive here because they need to import all of their oil – it is about $12/gallon, but that due to lots of windmills and nuclear plants, electricity is very inexpensive. There are lots of electric cars and charging stations.

Martin told us that there are 29 cemeteries in France for war casualties. We will visit the highlights of the American sites. There are only 7 non Americans on our ship and they have a separate small vehicle to take them to the Commonwealth and British/Canadian sites. We have met one couple from UK and and three people from Australia but don’t know the other two.

At the beaches of Normandy, 160,000 soldiers landed by sea and air. The conditions were not great, and the landing was actually delayed by a day from June 5 to June 6. Martin talked about the strategic decisions made by Eisenhower and how this invasion was ultimately a success in spite of the forces being greatly outnumbered by the Germans. In fact, Hitler was led to believe by information from spies that the landing would not take place in Normandy but in a site closer to the narrowest part of the channel between England and France.

We decided to re-watch the movie “The Longest Day” since Martin referred to it a lot.

On the drive, we saw the yellow covered fields that we have seen all through our travels in this area. They are rapeseed fields. Rapeseed is primarily used to make canola oil.

The battle of Normandy is considered to be 24 hours that changed history. It began with air assaults shortly after midnight on June 6, 1944. Allied troops took part in the largest seaborne invasion in history. With this campaign – code named Operation Overlord – the allies established a 55 mile long coastline. By day’s end, more than 160,000 Allied troops had landed in France, loosening Hitler’s once firm grip on Western Europe and paving the way for the liberation of Paris less than 3 months later on August 15, 1944.

Our first stop was at Utah Beach where the assault began in the early hours of the morning with US parachutists from 2 airborne divisions. Hampered by poor visibility, complicated terrain and artificially flooded fields, they eventually captured Sainte-Mere-Eglise, the first town liberated in the invasion.

We headed to the town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise where we visited the church. The US Army paratrooper Private John Steele became famous when his parachute caught on the steeple of the church. He hung there for 2 hours, playing dead before being captured, escaping and rejoining his unit. A mannequin remains on the church today.

We visited the airborne museum, had a nice picnic lunch and wandered through the market.

We visited the American Cemetery which is now US land. It is a sobering place with the markers perfectly lines up to remind visitors of how many lives were lost. There are 9386 graves here. Only 4 women were buried here, US nurses.

Our next stop was Pointe du Hoc, the site of one of the most daring operations of the Allied landings. There are many bomb craters and artillery batteries which serve as stark reminders of the battles fought here. The sea wall allowed the troops to shoot from either way.

Our last stop was Omaha Beach. This area was fortified by German batteries and proved to be a deadly objective. Wave after wave of troops from the US 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions were cut down. However the few who managed to scale the beach’s steep slopes breached the German defenses by midday. To the west the strategic German defense at Pointe du Hoc was scaled quickly but taken only after significant losses by the US 2nd Ranger Battalion.

We were each given a rose before a very touching ceremony was held.

One of our guides conducted the ceremony. A local trumpeter played the star spangled banner and then taps, followed by a moment of silence. Our guide read the following from the speech given by Eisenhower at the 20th anniversary of the battle.

To all the peoples of the world, I once more give expression to America’s prayerful and continuing inspiration:

“We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great human needs satisfied; that those now denied opportunity shall come to enjoy it to the full; that all who yearn for freedom may experience its spiritual blessings; that those who have freedom will understand, also, its heavy responsibilities; that all who are insensitive to the needs of others will learn charity; that the scourges of poverty, disease and ignorance will be made to disappear from the earth, and that, in the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love.”

I had tears in my eyes during the whole ceremony. We then took our roses and laid them at the foot of the memorial. Some chose to put them into the sea.

It was a long, emotional and tiring day. We had our dinner back on the ship and went to bed early. Tomorrow will be at Mantes-La-Jolie and our tour of the Palace of Versailles.