Trip to France

Hi everyone. So Jared and I went on a trip to Europe for a week and a half to see the sites and visit two of my sisters and their families. Both of them live in Europe right now for their husbands' jobs. For all of you who are wondering- no, we didn't bring the girls. We are baby ditchers. Jared's parents and my mom and dad watched the girls for us. Thanks guys!

Anyway, we started the trip in Normandy where we saw all the D-Day sites. This picture is us in front of one of the troop carriers at the Utah Beach museum.
After Utah Beach, we went to the American Cemetery. This is a picture I took at the museum there. It's amazing how peaceful it is there when you think about all the carnage that occurred there 65 years ago.
There are just over 9000 Americans buried at this cemetery, and it covers 172 acres. The rows and rows of white grave markers are completely overwhelming.
We also visited Pointe du Hoc that day. Ok, I didn't know about this place. It is a cliff right between the Omaha and Utah beaches. Apparently, the Germans built a lot of bunkers at the edge of the cliff but moved their big guns before D-Day. The Allied commanders knew the guns had been moved but felt the fortifications had to be taken anyway because there was still German artillery there. 225 Army Rangers were specially trained to climb up the cliff and take out the position. They took the bunkers with surprisingly few casualties but then had to hold them against a German counter attack. There were supposed to be about 500 reinforcements, but the signals got crossed and the others went to Omaha Beach instead.
The Rangers who were there had artillery support from air and sea, and you can still see the huge craters left here. Only 90 Rangers survived the German counter assault, but they held the fortifications.
I couldn't believe it when I saw this cute little bunny in a huge crater next to a half-destroyed bunker. It was once a place of great destruction, but now there are bunnies there. It was surreal.The last day we were in Normandy was rainy and cold. My brother-in-law (WWII buff and our unofficial tour director), my nephew, Jared, and I were the only ones who ventured out. We were looking for a museum but never found it. Instead we found the Big Red 1 monument site on Omaha beach by accident. The Big Red 1 is the Army 1st Infantry division. It was tasked with taking the German fortifications on Omaha Beach. The seas were really rough that morning. Some troops didn't even make it to shore because their landing crafts were totally swamped. The men who did get to shore had to run up the beach from the landing crafts with their full packs and guns while the Germans rained down gunfire from the top of the hill. They got pinned down on the beach for hours. Over 1000 men died, and they considered a retreat. Eventually, though, reinforcing troops turned the tide, and they were able to take the bunkers. At the end of the day, around 2400 men had died on the beach.
We climbed down the hill and explored all the German fortifications as we went. This picture shows only a few of the ones that are there.
This is what they look like up close. That's Jared and my nephew Braden in the picture. The opening where they're standing had a gun that could shoot down the length of the beach. We're talking a couple of miles people.
Then we went down to the edge of the water and looked up the beach.It is hard to imagine the amount of courage that it took to get out of the boat and run up that beach when you stand there at the edge of the water and look up the hill at the German bunkers looming over you. It would have been terrifying. People say this all the time, and it gets to be old hat, but those men truly were heroes.

That's it for now. I'll continue this later. Although the D-Day sites are solemn, there is a grandeur to them that is awe-inspiring. I'm glad I got to see them in person.