We spent several of our evenings at the chateau watching select scenes from ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and the entire ‘The Longest Day’ movie and loved hearing the account with the names of all the places we had become familiar with.
After learning so much about the the D-Day Invasion we were really looking forward to visiting the Pointe du Hoc…
“This was the Germans’ most heavily fortified position along the coast, thanks to its strategic location. For the American landing"s to succeed, the Allies determined that it was essential to take out this cliffside Germany battery, which could punish American forces attempting to land at Utah and Omaha beaches. For this task, 300 US Army Rangers were hand-picked to attempt a castle-style assault of the German occupied cliffs, using grappling hooks and ladders borrowed from London fire departments. Only about a third of the Rangers survived the vertical assault.
The large monument at the end of the bluff is the Ranger “Dagger” planted firmly in the ground. The German bunkers and the bombed-out landscape remain just as they were found. This position was the most heavily bombarded of all on D-Day, receiving more than 10,000 tons of bombs.”
Huge holes all over the fields where bombs had landed…
1 comment:
Looks like a very interesting place. You got some cool shots to help give the atmosphere of the history.
Post a Comment