Adventures With Harvey

Normandy

In the last couple of days this author has realised a life-long dream to visit the D-Day landing sites in Normandy. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, we ought to keep things in some sort of order as it’s been a little while since the last proper update. Buckle up, there’s a fair bit to report!

About the only good thing to come out of Rouen (and it was a VERY good thing) was finding the resting place of Anita’s Great-Great Uncle, Henry Gwilliam. Having first served at Gallipoli, he died fighting on the western front in 1916 at the age of 25 and rests at Cimetière St Sever in Rouen. The cemetery itself was massive, both civilian and military and is one of the largest in France. Aside from paying our respects at Uncle Henry’s grave it was interesting to see how the French commemorate their deceased differently from us. Typically in NZ there is a headstone ranging from simple to ornate and that’s about it however there were a huge number of plots with poems, symbols, emblems etc to commemorate the life of the deceased.

Our first stop on the Normandy coast was the little town of Étretat which reminded us a whole lot of Russell. Similarities: by the ocean with a lovely waterfront, about the same permanent population, nearby to a big city & a popular holiday destination, a hole in the rock, and a hill at one end with something interesting for those keen to climb (in this case a church rather than Hone Heke’s flag pole). A very cute little town although the temperature had dropped and it was quite chilly in the breeze. Next stop was another seaside town call Honfleur where we stayed the night, another very picturesque harbour with bustling waterfront and plenty of eateries to choose from. The architecture in these little places is something to behold, so many very old buildings in differing styles – we are forever saying “look at this” to one another.

Our only stop at Caen (correct pronunciation not dissimilar to kong but with a silent g) was to the WWII museum which, according to the lonely planet bible, is one of the best in France. And it didn’t disappoint with a huge number of exhibits, movie footage and information on everything regarding WWII. It also included a visit to an underground bunker which, in the latter part of the war, was the German high command for Normandy. There are little museums in virtually every town you pass through however because the one in Caen was so comprehensive, we're not stopping at many of the others.

The first of the D-Day landing beaches we visited was at Arromanches and was known as Gold beach. It was smack in the middle of the 50km or so of the Normandy landing area, Juno and Sword to the East with Omaha and Utah (the American section) to the West. One's eyes pop out of one’s little head seeing the goings-on around this beach on and shortly after 6 June 1944. The problem the allies had was capturing a port for the landing of reinforcements and supplies. There are several in the area including Caen, La Havre, Dieppe and Cherbourg however they were all massively defended and fortified by the Germans. So rather than spending time and resource in a protracted battle for one of these ports (ending in the destruction of the port itself no doubt), they created their own instead. It was known as a Mulberry and was pretty much a kitset harbour, manufactured in Britain and shipped/towed to Normandy. In addition to the harbour they also created an artificial breakwater to protect the new installation from Atlantic storms (one of which actually blew in 2 weeks after D-Day and destroyed the Mulberry at Omaha which wasn’t protected.) The breakwater consisted of 115 massive concrete pieces, each weighing 7000 tonnes and designed to be towed/floated across the English Channel. Once in place, the valves were removed and they were sunk to create the breakwater, a number of pieces of which are still there and visible today. The numbers of men and vehicles along with tonnage of supplies that was brought ashore on the 4 Mulberrys at Arromanches over the following months is staggering! Something like 2.5 million men, 500000 vehicles and 4 million tonnes of supplies!!

Between Gold and Omaha is an excellent example of Hitler’s ‘Atlantic Wall’ fortifications. You have an observation bunker along with 4 pill boxes, each with a massive gun which could protect the beach either side of it and threaten ships in the channel. Despite massive bombardment from both air and sea, these remained largely intact up until D-Day. Do you want to know how to destroy such an edifice? From the inside, that's how. One of them had the back wall blown 40’ away when the allies managed to blow up the ammunition dump contained inside!

The American cemetery at Omaha is particularly sobering. Mainly for the scale of it but also the stories which are told – e.g. there are 46 sets of brothers there, many of whom are buried side-by-side. The Americans and Brits do this type of thing particularly well, the cemetery is beautifully maintained and suitably respectful. In contrast, the French section at the Rouen cemetery was overgrown and unkempt.

Yesterday it was time to split tacks as Anita had seen enough of the war history stuff. I started the day back at the American cemetery because there was a theatre and museum we didn’t get to the previous day. I then visited the ‘Dog Green’ sector memorial at Omaha before stopping by Pointe du Hoc which was the major German gun emplacement in the area. The site was famously captured on D-Day by 225 American Rangers who scaled the cliff, got rid of the Germans and disabled the guns. This was one of the legendary stories of bravery from D-Day as, by the time they were relieved 2 days later having repelled many German counter attacks, there only remained 90 men fighting fit.

The final D-Day landing spot in Normandy was Utah Beach and despite saying earlier that the Museums were done, I really enjoyed the Musée du Debarquement with plenty of stories and memorabilia specific to the landings; vehicles, aircraft and landing craft used etc. The final 2 stops of the day were firstly at Sainte-Marie-Du-Mont and then at Sainte-Mère-Église which were a big part of the Normandy story, in particular regarding the 101^st and 82^nd Airborne paratroopers who fell from the sky in that area around midnight on the day before the beach assaults. Interestingly on June 6 1944 the church at Sainte-Marie-Du-Mont changed hands several times over the course of the day. One of the tragedies about the D-Day story is that, after 4 years of German occupation, around 20000 civilians in the area were killed by allied bombing that was needed to soften up the German positions before the invasion. Very sad indeed!

While your author’s appetite for war history was being satiated, his lovely wife was exploring Bayeux where we are currently staying. Her day was spent at the Saturday markets, museum (not war of course), cathedral, shops and hairdresser. Today will no doubt be a highlight when we visit the world-renowned Bayeux Tapestry which is almost 1000 years old.

You’re probably wondering what’s happening with Harvey. Well this author has decided that this and future blogs will focus more on the ‘Adventures’ and less on the ‘Harvey’. He’s a poorly behaved and recalcitrant chap and has been sent to the naughty corner until his attention-seeking behaviour improves. His many and varied problems have been taking up far too many column inches in this particular publication, that’s for sure.

So briefly, we are again without Harvey but thankfully we paid for the full-noise RAC membership (like the AA in NZ) which also covers us in Europe. This means that he is towed to the nearest repairer, or if needed, repatriated to the UK if he cannot be fixed locally. It also means that our rental car and accommodation are covered, so in actual fact, it’s been quite a nice change and not really hurting the wallet. Especially given many of the roads around the D-Day sites are narrow, windy and bumpy, none of which Harvey copes with all that well. Due to the lack of a Harvey, we also haven’t replaced the bikes as yet. A HUGE thanks to everyone for your words of encouragement and support in getting these bikes sorted!

That’s about it for this report - again I hope your cuppa didn’t go cold… this is Adventures with Harvey signing off for another day 😊