History

Our visit to Normandy began on Friday evening.  The drive to our hotel was generally in the darkness.  We arrived at 8:30 exactly on target thanks to our GPS.  The pre-arranged hotel was staffed by friendly people who made our stay very comfortable.
Morning breakfast, a hit with Lizzy Parker and Austin, included fresh pastries eggs cheeses selection pancakes and hot chocolate.  Afterward we visited many of the museums and actual locations where the allies successfully took back the French soil returning it to the rightful owners.  The French people we met were so gracious and kind to us.
The pictures that follow show the scenes but the feelings experienced were more powerful.

The battery at Longues Sur Mer was situated between the landing beaches Omaha and Gold. On the night before the D-Day landings of 6 June 1944, the battery was subject to heavy bombing from allied air forces. The bombing was followed from 0537hrs on the morning of the landings by bombardment from the French cruiser Georges Leygues as well as the U.S. battleship Arkansas. The battery itself opened fire at 0605hrs, forcing the headquarters ship HMS Bulolo to retreat to safer water. Three of the four guns were eventually disabled by British cruisers Ajax and Argonaut, though a single gun continued to operate intermittently until 1900hrs that evening. The site was captured by the 231st Infantry Brigade the following day.

As we visited this site and looked out over the vast space of ocean it was hard not to imagine the feelings of the enemy trying to defend this spot from such a formitable sight as the thousands of men and machinery coming toward them.  Then to imagine being overwhelmed so quickly I could feel the strength of the allies armed with determination, strength and a sense of nationalism.   No one could withstand such Godly power.  Good always wins in the end.  

Looking east from Longues Sur Mer position early in the morning on a clear bright day.  Imagine the view on a dark cloudy morning in early June. 

The view west.  Imagine the horizon filled with ships and planes.  Courageous men filled each one.  Somewhere in this area a brother (Dad's son with his first wife) was lost to enemy fire.  His efforts along with so many more made our todays so much safer.  As I shared this with a man at Church in Caen on Sunday, he said, "we thank you for him" 

Finding our way from one site to the next by GPS sometimes led us more than a direct route, in this case directly through a field.  But it was on the map...

Visiting the town of Arromanches-les-Bains just east of Longues Sur Mer provides a perfectly preserved village showing the usual 250 foot cliffs standing in the way of the Allied forces.

Each visit deserves its own landing.  Our Renault proved a worthy landing vehicle much to the landing skills of Mike.

Nothing compares to the feelings we felt as we visited the American Cemetery on Omaha Beach. 9,387 American soldiers are buried on this site including some who are unidentified.  Truly a peaceful place perfectly designed and maintained.  Each grave is marked by either a cross or star of David on which is engraved the name and date of death of the person. 

Our debt of gratitude is impossible to repay.

The boys needed to see the view from a bunker at Pointe du Hoc where uncommon courage allowed its capture by 225 Rangers with 99 surviving.  These boys live free today thanks to those who fought here.

The master photographer applying her skills.  Some of the photos included here were contributed by Jill Simmons.

Pointe du Hoc (French pronunciation: [pwɛ̃t dy ɔk]) is a clifftop location on the coast of Normandy in northern France. It lies 4 miles (6.4 km) west of Omaha Beach, and stands on 100 ft (30 m) tall cliffs overlooking the sea. It was a point of attack by the United States Army Ranger Assault Group during Operation Overlord in World War II.
Prior to the attack, the guns were moved approximately 1 mile away; however, the concrete fortifications were intact, and would still present a major threat to the landings if they were occupied by artillery forward observers. The Ranger Battalion commanders and executive officers knew the guns had moved, but the rest of the Rangers were not informed prior to the attack.^[3] The popular perception that the guns were "missing" on D-Day may be attributed to this decision not to inform the troops prior to the attack.

Attack

The Ranger battalion was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel James Earl Rudder. The plan called for the three companies of Rangers to be landed by sea at the foot of the cliffs, scale them using ropes, ladders, and grapples under enemy fire, and engage the enemy at the top of the cliff. This was to be carried out before the main landings. The Rangers trained for the cliff assault on the Isle of Wight, under the direction of British Commandos.

Preinvasion bombing of Pointe du Hoc by 9th Air Force bombers.

Major Cleveland A. Lytle was to command three companies of the 2nd Ranger Battalion in the assault at Point du Hoc. During a briefing he heard that Free French sources reported the guns thought to be there had been removed. Lytle became quite vocal that the assault would be unnecessary and suicidal and was relieved of his command at the last minute by Provisional Ranger Force commander Rudder. Rudder felt that Lytle could not convincingly lead a force with a mission that he did not believe in.Lytle was later transferred to the 90th Infantry Division where he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
Despite initial setbacks because of weather and navigational problems, resulting in a 40-minute delay and loss of surprise, the cliffs were scaled and the strongpoint was assaulted successfully, with relatively light casualties. Fire support was provided during the attack by several nearby Allied destroyers and British LCS's. Upon reaching the fortifications, most of the Rangers learned for the first time that the main objective of the assault, the artillery battery, had been moved out of position, possibly as a result of air attacks during the buildup to the invasion. It is said that German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel gave the order to move the battery since he had recently been placed in charge of the coastal defenses of Normandy. Removal of the guns had actually been completed on June 4, 1944, but poor weather conditions prior to the invasion limited a final reconnaissance effort which would have revealed the guns' removal. The Rangers regrouped at the top of the cliffs, and a small patrol went off in search of the guns. This patrol found the guns nearby and destroyed them with thermite grenades. The new battery location inland was sited solely for Utah beach.
The costliest part of the battle for the Rangers came after the cliff assault. Determined to hold the vital ground, yet isolated from other assault forces, they fended off several German counterattacks over the next two days, until reinforced from Omaha Beach. The original plans called for an additional, larger Ranger force of eight companies to follow the first attack, if successful. Flares from the clifftops were to signal this second wave to join the attack, but because of the delayed landing, the signal came too late, and the other Rangers, mostly of the U.S. 5th Ranger Battalion, landed on Omaha instead of Pointe du Hoc.
The added impetus these 500+ Rangers provided on the stalled Omaha Beach landing has been conjectured to have averted a disastrous failure there, since they carried the assault beyond the beach, into the overlooking bluffs and outflanked the German defenses. At the end of the 2-day action, the initial Ranger landing force of 225+ was reduced to about 90 men who could still fight. One of the battleships who helped the battalion was the USS Texas (BB-35).

Large bomb craters remain today, 65 years after the attack.  Children playing is such a drastic contrast from the events causing these craters.   

Looking west from the gun location is the actual Pointe du Hoc  

  The abandoned gun bunkers had suffered some damage from ships guns trained on them prior to the attack. 

A World War II Pointe du Hoc Ranger Monument is located on a cliff eight miles west of Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, which overlooks Omaha Beach.  It was erected by the French to honor elements of the American Second Ranger Battalion under the command of Lieutenant Colonel James E. Rudder.  During the American assault of Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944, these elements scaled the 100-foot cliff and seized the German artillery pieces that could have fired on the American landing troops at Omaha Beach.  At a high cost of life, they successfully defended against determined German counterattacks.

The monument consists of a simple granite pylon positioned atop a German concrete bunker with tablets at its base inscribed in French and English.  The monument was formally transferred to the American Battle Monuments Commission for perpetual care and maintenance on January 11, 1979.  This battle-scarred area on the left flank of Omaha Beach remains much as the Rangers left it.