Day 2 - Wednesday, May 14, 2014

We woke up, had breakfast, and then headed from Bayeaux towards the coast, to the town of Arromanches. We stopped by the Musee de Debarquement to get our bearings, before visiting the three beaches (Sword, Juno, Gold).

It just so happened that the museum happened to have a prop from the movie The Longest Day, which details the invasion of the Normandy beaches. During the planning, the Allies created fake paratroopers attached with explosives that would go off when they hit the ground, which would sound like gunfire. This was to help confuse the Germans. Here is “Rupert”, the actual prop used in the movie. He’s about 3 feet tall.

We then made our way to the northern most beach, which is Sword Beach. The British lead the attack on Sword Beach, with elements of the French Free Army, including 177 French commandoes.

We went to the No. 4 Commando Museum, which details the contributions of the 177 French commandoes.

We watched a video presentation, and it struck me that the point of view was essentially that these French commandoes helped to uphold French honor. Throughout my trip, I came to realize that there might be a sense of collective shame for the fact that the French did not do more to resist the Germans. The French lost over 3 million during World War I, and the wounds were still fresh, and therefore, I believe it was a much harder scenario when World War II came about. Of the 177 French Commandoes, 10 lost their lives during the Normandy invasion. All 10 plaques can be seen in this photo.

After Sword Beach, we went to Juno Beach, which was also attacked by the British. One thing that stuck me about Sword, Juno & Gold Beaches, was that they were all relatively flat, and that even with the German emplacements, there really wasn’t any high ground from which to defend.

At the end of the day, we visited the battery of Longues-Sur-Mer, which consisted of four 152-mm guns.

These guns had a forward post 300 yards towards the coast, but since the French resistance cut the communication lines, the guns didn't know where to aim. Despite 5,000 ships being part of the D-Day invasion, this battery never hit a single one. That completed our day of the British beaches.