This year we're planning to travel to Normandy. While the madam has probably a more romantic vacation in mind, I am mainly interested in visiting historical sites and all things World War II. Has anyone been there and can you point me towards some less known or less obvious stuff that's worth a visit? I'd love to read about your experiences.
I've heard that Honfleur has a lot to see. There's a lot of old buildings with definitive old styles from different eras in the same town. There is a church there that has a ceiling that looks like a ship's hull, and apparently it was actually made in the "spirit" of the Norsemen, as the timber was hewn without saw. I actually haven't been but intend to. As far as the military bits - yeah, I'm probably in the same boat as you. All that I could tell you is go see the beach, which I'm sure you already plan to. Say hello to the ground where two of my ancestors bled.
I think Honfleur will be a bit of a drive from where I'll be staying, but that surely looks interesting enough. Thanks! Of course I'll go see the beaches and the cemetaries. I expect a most humbling experience. I hope you don't mind the question, but did your ancestors make it home again?
Really? Honfleur is only a 45 minute drive from Caen. If I were in Normandy I couldn't go there without going to Caen. William the Conqueror was from there (and is buried there), and there was actually a very big battle for it in WW2. And then right across the river from Honfleur is Le Havre, the largest city and Normandy and site and name of one of Aki Kaurismaki's most famous movies. Take a look at this map of important D-Day sites I don't mind - it wasn't my horror and I barely knew them. Somehow all of my ancestors that fought in WW2 made it back, but I only know of one who wasn't wounded. On my father's side one was shot down while flying reconnaissance at D-Day - don't know how he made it down and out alive, but apparently he did. The second took shrapnel on the beaches, but somehow made it out alive. A third was in Patton's tank corps and had to hold his guts when his wound cut through his stomach, but he was sent back, wrapped in linen, and sent back to battle within 24 hours. These kinds of stories still amaze me - I don't know how they survived. Two of them died before I was born, the third died when I was just a year or two old. I also had a grandfather through marriage, my maternal grandmother's second husband, who was in WW2. I was lucky to know him for two decades, but he told a different kind of story. I spent a lot of time with him and my grandmother growing up, but he never told me anything about the war. He'd say sternly, "don't ask me about that," or just ignore it, but when I enlisted he opened up about anything I wanted to know. And I asked where he served: he said he was in the Philippines. I asked what he did: he said he was a junior officer, but mostly he just guarded prisoners. I asked if he'd ever been in combat: he said yes. And I expected so much more, so I asked if he was shot at: he said yes. I asked, "well what'd you do, did you fire back?" And this one has always amazed me. He turned kind of slowly to look at me and said, "NO! I HIT THE DECK!" I asked, and he never fired a shot at an enemy in the entire war.
There was a thread on the Chive of a forest south of what was Leningrad, tree and other vegetation have consumed German/Russian helmets, weapons, and munitions. Imagine going for a hike and stumbling across a tree that grew through the bullet hole in a helmet?!?!1 I would just (*)(*)(*)(*) in my pants.
Some of this stuff just isn't believable. https://www.google.com/search?q=leningrad+trees+growing+over+helmets&espv=2&biw=1600&bih=731&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=0_9LVdDpIIuwogS7yIHgDA&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg&dpr=1
To the west of Omaha beach where the coast turns northward is Carentan with an airborne museum, lots of German and American relics of the 101st. A little north of there is St Mere-Eglise where a paratrooper famously got hung up on the church while the battle raged underneath him. They're both on the edge of the "bocage" countryside, a lot of small fields with hedgerows and winding sunken lanes where vicious tank battles took place. http://www.normandy1944.org.uk/ste_mere_eglise.htm A French site about Dead Man's corner. http://www.paratrooper-museum.org/
Before you head to the across the pond to the land of the frogs, do some research first. One question many ask but never get an answer is, why were U.S. Marines barred from the June 6, 1944 landings ?
They never filled in the craters at Pointe du Hoc. Still lumpy as all hell. I used to have a photo of me and some American guy I met on the tour there standing on the tip of the Pointe (well, that is accessible; the actual tip is on a damn unscalable rock). For the photo I put on an old Nazi helmet I bought at a war artifact shop in Arromanches-les-Baines and did a sarcastic Nazi salute. Was funny at the time, now it'd just look dumb. Well it would be if I could see it, but it went down with my old laptop's hard drive.
