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