Remembering and celebrating D-Day in Normandy
Summary
Normandy sits pretty today, but 80 years ago, the clatter of gunfire rent the air as soldiers battled in its streets and fields
Base yourself in Bayeux, it is ideal for exploring D-Day sites and museums," said the concierge at the Pullman Paris Montparnasse where I was staying. I’ve had a keen interest in World War II since childhood, and often seek out WWII battlegrounds, museums and memorials during my travels. This year, I decided to visit Normandy ahead of the 80th anniversary of D-Day on 6 June, which led to the liberation of France.
From Paris, I headed to Normandy at the wheel of a Jeep Wrangler—a fitting vehicle because it was during the battles on the beaches of Normandy that the predecessor of today’s Jeep, the Willys MB 4x4, proved its mettle. Its reliability and capability in all terrain ensured that the word “Jeep" is used to identify any capable off-road SUV, irrespective of brand.
I covered the 270km from Paris in three hours and arrived at the little town of Bayeux. The centre of the town is cloistered with cafés, boulangeries, a Carrefour and—incongruously—an Irish pub. Even though 6 June was almost two months away, Bayeux already wore a celebratory air in anticipation of the Festival of Normandy on the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Several shop windows were decorated with themes celebrating the liberation.
What is D-Day?
By the end of 1943, WWII was in its fifth year and most of Europe was dominated by Nazi Germany. The Soviets, on the eastern front, were fighting the might of the German war machine. When the heads of the Allied nations—the US, USSR and UK—Franklin Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill, respectively, met in Tehran in November 1943, Stalin was insistent that a western front be opened to take the pressure off the Soviet army. It was decided that around May 1944, the Allies would launch the invasion of western Europe.
The invasion, code-named Operation Overlord and led by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, was set for 5 June and then postponed by 24 hours due to terrible weather. During the wee hours of a foggy Tuesday, 6 June 1944, 13,000 paratroopers were dropped in Normandy behind German lines. Their mission was to overcome German defences and secure vital roads and bridges close to the beaches so that the seaborne troops could follow.
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Operation Neptune was the code name for the naval element of Operation Overlord. It consisted of over 5,000 vessels carrying about 160,000 troops. These ships set sail across the English Channel in the dark for beaches along a 50-mile stretch in Normandy. These beaches were code-named (West to East) Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.
The landings began around 6.30am. Thanks to an elaborate Allied campaign in the preceding months to trick the Germans into thinking that the invasion would happen at Calais, where the distance between England and France was the shortest, and the Germans believing that the Allies would never launch an invasion in such bad weather, the Allied troops caught the Germans off guard.
Yet it wasn’t a pushover and the invasion teetered on the brink of uncertainty for a large part of the first 24 hours. The Germans fought brutally hard to contain the Allied troops on the beaches. German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel had famously said that the first 24 hours would be the “longest day". If the Allied troops were not pushed back into the sea from the beaches itself, it would be the beginning of the end for Germany. However, the Allies broke out from the beaches and won the battle of Normandy over the next few days. It is this victory and the beginning of the liberation of Europe that the festival celebrates.
“In the past, scores of veterans would arrive for reunions. As the years go by, the number of surviving veterans has gone small," said the woman at the tourism office in Bayeux. “Even in their late 90s, on wheelchairs and with oxygen bottles, they come still to pay their respects to their brothers-in-arms who are buried in the many cemeteries around Normandy. Even after all these years the memories are so powerful that many of them are overcome with emotion." I visited a few of the 29 cemeteries scattered across Normandy. These are a powerful reminder of the true cost of the liberation of Europe from Nazi terror.
Festival of gratitude
Over the next few days, with Bayeux as my base, I drove around the pretty countryside of Normandy visiting the beaches, sites of battles and gun batteries and museums, which make history come alive with their exhibits of arms, uniforms, vehicles and equipment.
It is truly poignant to visit Omaha Beach, which today, is peaceful and serene. But from the opening sequences of Saving Private Ryan, I know what a bloody massacre happened here 80 years ago when German machine gun and mortar fire from the cliffs beyond the beach mercilessly cut to pieces the first waves of troops landing here. So much so that the sea turned red that Tuesday morning. But the soldiers held on tenaciously and advanced inch by inch up the beach.
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Every year the D-Day Festival of Normandy takes place along the coastline, from Pegasus Bridge to Sainte-Mère-Eglise and includes the towns of Bayeux, Ouistreham, Arromanches, and of course the five D-Day beaches.
This year, the festival is all the more special and will run from the 1-16 June. An event attended by heads of state, it will include open-air concerts, parades, reenactment of parachute drops (with original WWII aircraft), and historical re-enactments of the beach landings along with fireworks, exhibitions and large screen projections of archival footage.
The baker in Bayeux, from whom I would get my morning croissant, explained that festival’s underlying theme was gratitude. “Normandy locals and visitors make it their responsibility never to let coming generations forget what happened here in the summer of 1944. It is about honouring all the soldiers and civilians who perished and also the joy of celebrating the freedom won, thanks to them."
Rishad Saam Mehta is a Mumbai-based author, travel writer and budding travel video maker.
