![]() Also on display were weapons, uniforms of Allied forces and Nazis and maps showing the strategy and progress of the winning side. We sat through an informative film in English and French then examined thousands of photos with bilingual descriptions. The museum, built in 1954 only nine years after the war ended and modernized in April, takes you from the beginning of World War II and Adolf Hitler’s quest to return Germany to the glory it lost in World War I, right to D-Day, known then as Operation Overlord. In the water we could still see the remains of the artificial harbor the Allies built after the victorious D-Day to land 3,500 vehicles and 24,000 soldiers a day. We started at the D-Day Museum, in Arromanches-les-Bains, right near Juno Beach where Canadian troops landed that day. The D-Day Beaches get more than 1 million visitors a year. We had our own private guide, a personal history lesson. No one else had signed up for the tour that day. With this vision on a continual loop in my brain I joined Marina and Francois at the site where it happened. Bodies and blood and dismemberment everywhere. Another holding his intestines overflowing from his open wound. A man searches around and finally picks up his blown-off arm on the ground. Men getting blown away as soon as their amphibious door opened. Photo by Marina Pascucciīefore this trip, I saw again the riveting opening scene from Private Ryan. A photo of the D-Day braintrust, with Pres. Saving Private Ryan had come out the year before and it sent chills through every blood vein looking up on the dune and seeing what 4,000 men saw before they died. I visited on a cold, gray day in December 1999 when I walked Omaha Beach just below where the Nazis fired away at Allied troops coming on shore. I told Francois that I’d been here before. ![]() He worked espionage, discovering the number of German troops, weapons and locations to pass on to French command. Francois was a tall, trim ex-France Army man whose father worked for the French Resistance in World War II. Bayeux became the capital of liberated France and General Charles De Gaulle came to town for his first speech after liberation.Īt a hotel near Bayeux’s train station, we met our guide. In the Bayeux Museum, the details can be seen through 58 panels of the Bayeux Tapestry, the world’s most famous embroidery. In 1066, the Normans led by William the Conqueror launched their conquest of England from these shores. The tour met in Bayeux, a pretty, leafy town of 13,500 people whose ancestors had an up-close-and-personal experience with two major wars. ![]() An American Jeep used during the Normandy Invasion in the D-Day Museum. It was the 100 days of the Normandy Invasion that turned back the greatest threat to Western Civilization in the 20th century. So on this July 4th, as you put relish on your hotdog and decide where to watch the fireworks, let me take you through the period in history that must never be forgotten. It went all afternoon, from the D-Day Museum to the American Cemetery to the five beaches that live in infamy to this day. (Blog coming next Tuesday.) During our sunny week in beautiful Normandy, we took a D-Day tour. She had a dream to visit Mont Saint-Michel, the Disneyland-like church that rises up from the English Channel on an island off the coast. I took Marina to Normandy for her birthday. I toured the D-Day beaches in Normandy, where on June 6, 1944, Allied troops stormed onto Northern France and turned around World War II in their favor, leaving a trail of their blood and guts and bodies along the way. However, two weeks ago I visited the site of arguably the most important day in American military history. I grew up with the Vietnam War and lived through the Iraqi War, two of the biggest atrocities in U.S. I loved the backyard BBQs back in the U.S. I have never been much into the Fourth of July. and the Allied Forces saving Italy from Mussolini and the Nazis. They have a never-ending appreciation for the U,S. But what Italians do lasts 365 days a year. Some July Fourths I’d go up the hill to the American University of Rome which would have a celebration, complete with American hotdogs and burgers. Still, Italy doesn’t do anything special for us. My girlfriend’s father was 8 years old in 1944 when he ran to Rome’s Historical Center and picked up chocolate bars American soldiers threw from their vehicles as they rolled through town after liberating the city. BAYEUX, France – Celebrating the Fourth of July as an American expat overseas can be an isolating experience.
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