River Cruise Diary – Normandy

We leave single grave stories and return to this year’s river cruise in France and a story about many graves.

The cruise company calls this ‘Day 5’ in the Seine River cruise itinerary though we have not yet floated a meter. We eat and sleep on a fine boat but either walk around the quaint town of Honfleur or take buses to special places. I’ll save the complaints for later because today is a ‘bucket list’ day. We are going to see where D-Day happened and one of the magnificent cemeteries that contain the brave American dead.

Normandy American Cemetery, Colleville-sur-Mer, France (10 April 2023)

We introduced the American Battlefield Monuments Commission last year when the Rhone River cruise in 2006 took us to the American Cemetery in Draguignan. The Commission was created after World War I so we could properly repatriate and honor the more than 100,000 who died in battle. Eight permanent cemeteries were established in Europe then, and fourteen more were added after world War II.

On 172 acres, the Normandy American Cemetery holds the graves of 9,388 service people who died during the 1944 D-Day invasion. Unlike the diversity in the 19th-century cemeteries I frequent that feature monuments big and small, ornate and simple, one is struck by the harmonizing unniformity here. Even Arlington National Cemetery has areas with a variety of grave markers. Here, privates and generals are no different and graves come in but two representations...Christian crosses and Jewish stars.

Normandy American Cemetery, Colleville-sur-Mer, France (10 April 2023)

The color palette also is simple. Green, white and blue...if you’re lucky. Today, it’s grey. Sad that this was the worst weather day of the entire trip. While I have encouraged picture-taking in bad weather, wind and rain together make it difficult to shoot while steadying an umbrella. Nonetheless, the weather suited the mood on this day.

Among the interred, there are 45 pairs of brothers, a father and son, three generals and two of Teddy Roosevelt’s boys. Quentin, who was shot down in WW I and buried at the family home on Long Island, was reburied here with his brother, Theodore, jr. who died in France shortly after D-day.

Memorial Pavilion, Normandy American Cemetery,

Colleville-sur-Mer, France (10 April 2023)

Behind this pavilion is the Wall of the Missing where 1557 names are inscribed. Rosettes are added when identities are confirmed. Our cruise company strives to include some recognition of the nation’s military service somewhere on its European itineraries. At the Rhone Cemetery, veterans from World War II were recognized. That was seventeen years ago and soon we will no longer have living veterans of that conflict. This year’s commemoration invited any military veteran to come forward and receive our appreciation.

Normandy American Cemetery Visitor Center,

Colleville-sur-Mer, France (10 April 2023)

Of all the Commission’s cemeteries, the one here is by far the most-visited. Over a million people come, as I did, to marvel at the location, its beauty and history. A new visitor center and museum was opened in 2007. Toward the end of the visitor’s path through the exhibits is this stark representation of the sacrifice.

‘Les Braves’ by Anilore Banon, Omaha Beach (10 April 2023)

After the cemetery, we were taken down to a stretch of Omaha Beach where we could gain additional perspective...imagining trying to make it safely to shore under a barrage of bullets and cannon fire.

This sculpture’s creator describes it as “Wings of hope and fraternity and the rise of freedom.” I can’t help but also see explosions, flames and the violence of war. “Eye of the beholder” after all. Clearly, we were there during high tide. This link to the monument will show hundreds of feet of open beach exposed during low tide.

Pointe du Hoc (10 April 2023)

Eight miles west of the American Cemetery is Pointe du Hoc, a 100-foot cliff that juts out from the coast. Embedded with heavy German artillery, it needed to be taken since the guns could reach Omaha and Utah beaches and make a mess of the invading forces. Army Rangers scaled the cliffs in a dawn raid that secured the area...at a cost of more than half of their force. The French later placed a monument atop the foremost German fortification to commemorate the event.

Observation Bunker at Pointe du Hoc (10 April 2023)

With little room to operate artillery, this bunker at the edge of the

cliff was there to scout the sea and direct fire toward the invaders.

At least the rain stopped in the afternoon but it was a gloomy day overall. I had to remember that my personal history does not include military service let alone combat, I have great admiration and appreciation for citizens who served and never came home.

With that said, Gentle Reader, I must also note my time here triggered another thought. Sorry if this is a buzz kill but this is my space. Remember that a former Commander-in-Chief (and current presidential candidate who wants to make America great again) called these buried heroes “suckers and losers” and refused to participate in a commemoration in France because the rain would mess up his very special hair.

How many more reasons do we need to reject this menace?