Ground Swell of Emotions and Other Unknown Realities of WW II

Spent the afternoon exploring the coastline of Normandy.  Our outing included the beaches of Omaha, Utah, and Arromanches, and towns St Aubin and Luc sur Mer. The first two, Omaha and Utah I already knew their significants in my country's life and the liberation of France.  Arromanches is another matter.

Arromanches has a museum that is dedicated to showing how the harbor was built and sustained to make D-Day a reality.  Hmmmmm, this was an area of knowledge in may education that was lacking.  How about for you?  Do you know the story of the Arromanches harbor?

The success of D-Day depended on the Allies building a harbor the would sustain the troops in France.  It was known that the fortifications by the Germans in pre existing French harbors were not an option.  The Germans were prepared to destroy the harbors when attacked.  So another plan had to be considered.

The harbor planning began in 1942, two years before D-Day.  Workers in Great Britain built floating docks that could be submerged to create a harbor.  They also built unloading docks that would rise and fall with the ships and the tides.  It was a first of its kind.  Soon after the beginning of D-Day's attack the artificial reefs for the harbor were sunk and the loading docks were positioned.  Within about 48 hours, most of the harbor was completed and withstood a very bad storm.  Another site closer to Omaha Beach was destroyed by the same storm.

Without the success of Arromanches' artificial harbor, D-Day would have failed after a few days.

Because 90% of Normandy was destroyed, most of the towns in Normandy have been rebuilt since the end of WW II.  There are many reminders of the war.  In St. Lô the cathedral's nave was completely destroyed by allied bombs.  When it was time to rebuild only the Christ figure hanging before the alter and the right-hand steeple remained standing.  The community chose to rebuilt the nave with a modern motif so that everyone would forever be reminded of the destructive time of WW II.

Later we visited several cemeteries scatter throughout Normandy.  The visual sight of row after row of marked graves induced a strong sense of emotions for the loss of life and the horror of that time.  More than 10,000 lives were lost in that single day!