France, day 8

     A tour guide joined us early on and accompanied us on the tour of the D-Day invasion sites, giving us the history of them.  It was a cold and rainy day.
     The Germans were convinced that the Americans were coming into a different area of France other than Normandy, as it was far more convenient.  The USA originally planned to come into the beach at high tide.  Unfortunately, there were obstacles that could only be moved at low tide.  Giving this lots of thought, they decided to land at low tide, but as it was rising so the infantry wouldn't have to walk as far.  As they were landing, some of the Germans noticed and requested troops that had been deployed in the north.  The Germans thought it was a ploy and refused.  By the time they realized that it was the ploy, it was too late.  All major roads and rail roads had been bombed, making it almost impossible to travel south.  The D-Day invasion had begun.
     Omaha beach had been known as Bloody Omaha.  It was the most dangerous as it was mostly cliffs, bluffs, and pebbles instead of sand.  It a shot was fired at the pebbles, it wouldn't sink harmlessly into them, as it would at the other sandy beaches.  Instead, it would turn into razor sharp shrapnel, which accounted for many of the casualties.  Even though Omaha was well defended, they couldn't keep bombers away very well, i.e., the soiled part of the beach was cratered like Swiss Cheese.
     On the day of the invasion, the waves were up to five feet in height, making it difficult to land 24,000 soldiers.
     After touring the beaches, we actually were able to go to the graves at Normandy.  It was mindbogglingly massive.  It was erie to think that there was a body underneath each and every one of those headstones.  At the grave site, there are 9,387 graves. One Scottish, one British, 5 Canadian, 1 Mexican, and one from WWI.  As we moved out, the tour guide had one last quick quip; while they were digging the foundations for a house, they found a fully dressed German soldier, perfectly mummified by the salt.  Funny how things work out like that sometimes.
      Then, we explored the museum at Caen, which housed many artifacts of WWII, mainly of the D-Day invasion, though.  There we were able to reinforce what we had already learned with the tour guide with visual aides, which helped greatly.  We were able to peek into what it would be like living during that time frame, and also many of the inner workings of the war, on both sides.  It was a very rough time.

     We went to get dinner, another weird buffet place, but much much better this time, and then headed to the check in for the ferries.  We waited around for quite a while and then were able to board.  The ferry was absolutely enormous.  When I heard them say it was huge, I thought they were exaggerating it.  Walking up to it though... they were sugar coating it.  Well, so long France, we're off to England!