Our one and only port call in France was at the northern port city of Cherbourg, full name Cherbourg-en-Cotentin. One of the few truly deep-water ports on the English Channel, Cherbourg has a long maritime history. This was the penultimate port call of the Titanic before she sailed off on her never-to-be-completed maiden voyage. She may very well have been docked at the same pier where our ship was tied up, end to end with a massive Stena Line cruise ferry.
However, the entire region around Cherbourg, and especially just to the east of the Cotentin peninsula is preoccupied with more recent history. The Liberation of Europe in 1944-45 began here, just on the east side of the Peninsula, at the long string of beaches code-named "Utah." With the 80th anniversary date of the invasion fast approaching (exactly 2 weeks from the date of our visit), it was plain to see that this year's celebrations were going to be on an even bigger scale than usual.
The tour I took, then, was entirely themed around the landings on Utah Beach, and became the second day of my meditations on the war and its role in so many people's lives, stretching far into the future.
Leaving Cherbourg, we drove swiftly east on the expressway across the Cotentin, and then branched off onto the country roads. Here we could see that the traditional farming techniques of smaller fields divided by hedgerows are still followed. Our guide told us that many of the hedgerows were removed after the war to make it feasible to use larger and larger tractors. In many cases, they have now been restored (like these relatively new ones) because they do so much to soak up excess water in low-lying and flat areas.
Our first stop was on a flattish hilltop west of Utah Beach. Here we saw some of the gun batteries which the Germans had installed as coastal defences here, as along all the long winding coastline of their vaunted Fortress Europa.
The big bunker with the massive concrete roof could withstand direct aerial bombing, and the gun which would have been installed under it could have inflicted severe damage on naval ships far out at sea.
The guns in smaller emplacements commanded the actual beachfront area. That's still several miles away, and now concealed by closer vegetation which would have been cut down when the guns were installed. Dozens of these batteries ringed the five invasion beaches.
The x-shaped tank traps were installed here, and in thousands in the offshore shallow waters, precisely because tanks would not be able to overrun them.
We did not enter the site because it charged a 20€ admission fee (about $30 CDN!), but also because we were racing the clock to get to everywhere we needed to go. The tour company was running two of these tours back-to-back in the one day before our ship sailed again!
When we drove down from the hills at Crisbecq, we were met by this broad stretch of flat land, actually all of it marshland which was painstakingly drained by the Norman farmers. The Nazis heedlessly inflicted suffering and food shortages by flooding all the land again to deter invasion troops. The buildings in the far distance on the horizon are actually built on the higher sand dune which fringes the entire length of the beaches.
And then we arrived at the next stop, a memorial overlooking Utah Beach itself.
It's hard to look at this peaceful scene today, and to try to visualize the firestorm which erupted on this placid shoreline in 1944. What's even harder to visualize, though, is the fact that in many areas of the five main invasion fronts, the landing troops actually made it off the gunfire-raked sands, and sometimes most of the way through the marshlands beyond, all in the first day.
Somehow, these gnarled and twisted trees survived it all. I know I'm making an assumption which might be wrong, but trees that grow in windswept environments often live to great ages without ever growing to great heights. To my inexpert eye, these look like they might very well have been here eighty years ago to greet the invaders. At all events, they certainly seem to be here to stay now.
Across the road, a direction sign includes names that would be familiar to many a veteran and many a students of the D-Day landings.
Needless to say, the Nazis in 1944 had removed all road signs to avoid giving the invaders any help. One of the names on the sign, "Ste Mère-Église" points the way to the country town which was our next stop, some miles inland from the beaches.
The real attraction of Sainte-Mère-Église (the name translates literally as "Holy Mother Church") is the town's medieval church.
It looks like many another medieval village church -- until you look closely at the side of the tower.
What appears, at first glance, like a ghoulish Halloween prank is an actual representation of what happened to U. S. paratrooper John Steele during the landings of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions in the early hours of June 6, 1944. Steele survived by hanging on the tower, pretending to be dead, for over two hours until he was taken prisoner. Many of his comrades were killed by gunfire as they descended or were caught in trees. Steele later escaped and rejoined his unit. According to our guide, he returned to Sainte-Mère-Église for the yearly celebrations of the Liberation every year for the rest of his life.
Inside the church are two striking memorials in stained glass. The first honours all the soldiers involved in the Liberation, with figures of paratroopers shown on either side of the Virgin and Child.
The second honours the reunion held by the paratroopers at the 25th Liberation celebrations in 1969, as recorded by the deeply evocative words at the bottom of the window: "Ils Sont Revenus"/"They Have Come Back."
Out and around in the town, there are many banners and flags containing the stars and stripes of the American national flag. Our guide told us that when the actual anniversary of the Liberation comes around each year, the houses blossom with untold numbers of American flags. The emotion seems as deeply and truly held here as it does in Holland for the Canadian soldiers who liberated that country not long after the events on Utah Beach and in Sainte-Mère-Église.
And I was glad that, like me, she had managed to reach a place of significant family remembrance. It had been a meaningful pair of days for me.
To wrap up, here again is the updated map of our voyage.
No comments:
Post a Comment