The Tejchmas: Normandy

Jason and I traveled to Normandy, France a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed learning about the history of the area. Our first stop was actually to a German cemetery where we learned a bit about the "other" side. The picture below is probably a picture most people are familiar with from WWII.

This picture shows the D-Day invasion by the Americans, British, and Canadians. The arrows show the name of the beach where each country attacked.

Here is Jason standing in the German cemetery La Cambe. This is the largest German cemetery in Normandy. There are about 21,400 bodies that lay to rest here. However, it doesn't look like there many people here because instead of giving each person their own grave stone, they placed these 5 crosses throughout the cemetery.

The large mound the center is actually a mass grave of about 3oo German soldiers that were never identified.

This church is located in Saint Mere Eglise, which was actually the first town liberated after D-Day. One American paratrooper actually landed on this church and he hung there stranded for 2 days. German snipers knew he was there, but did not shoot him because it would give their location away. Instead the American soldier hung there until the town was liberated. There is actually a mannequin still hanging in the spot where he landed.

Statue outside of the museum we entered in St. Mere Eglise that honored the American paratroopers.

German bunker still standing on someone's land. German bunker is on the left and the person's house is on the right.

Utah beach where the Americans landed.

German bunker on Utah beach.

Statue outside of Utah Beach honoring soldiers from Texas and Oklahoma. They called this unit the "Tough Ombres."

Pointe du Hoc Memorial site where American troops scaled the steep cliff to take out German artillery that was pointing towards the beaches where the Americans were attacking. The Americans had been bombing this site for the last few days prior to the attack.

Cliff that American troops climbed.

Site where Americans had bombed.

German bunker remains.

Large craters left from where the bombs were dropped.

More German bunkers.

German bunker on cliff side coming into Omaha Beach.

Omaha Beach, the second beach the Americans stormed.

American war cemetery Colleville/Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer. Here there are 9,386 soldiers and 4 women buried here. On a memorial wall it lists 1,557 missing soldiers. This cemetery was alot bigger in comparison to the German cemetery we visited even though there were fewer people buried here. Majority of families had their sons shipped back home to be buried in the States.

Grave sites for the American soldiers that fell during the Normandy D-Day Invasion.

This picture shows Mulberry Harbor on the Gold Beach where the British invaded. Mulberry Harbor was an artificial harbor created to help the Allied Forces bring supplies into Europe.