Bloody Omaha (Omaha la Sanglante).

We couldn't come in Normandy without discovering landing beaches.
Then, we went to Omaha beach. Bloody Omaha.

We almost forgot the real french name, which is Saint Laurent's Beach.

The first thing which stroked me was silence.
Here you arrive in front of a huge beach, with a lot of persons who come to see it. And people are silent.
A true meditation place.
People speak low. And there were no kite or swimmer...etc. People walk on the sand. Each one comes here for one reason : Try to feel the D-Day ambient.

This is overwhelming. Even for a beach...

I've decided to not use a slideshow for those pictures. Because, for us, this is a huge part of our History. Our future get determined from this period. Our daily present.

And for all American, English, Canadian, French, Australian, Polish, Belgian, Dutch, Norwegian, Czechoslovak, Dane, Greek, New Zealander people...etc. who are dead on this day and the following, even for all those young Germans who just wanted to live and did have no choice, as us, I thought a slideshow was too superficial.

I won't tell you the D-Day story. I think you can find all you would like to remember on the net.
I just want to give you the most important things to know :

It happened on 1944, on June 6th. At 6 o'clock in the morning.
Troops were essentially composed by Americans, Canadians and British. I don't want to ignore other nationalities. For sure.
But losses for those countries were enormous.
Ten thousand people died. Three thousand on Omaha Beach. Fifteen more than on Utah beach.

A slaughter.

When you'll see the picture, you will understand why it was so ..."easy" to shoot them. And so hard to stay alive.

So, if you don't want to see more than 45 pictures ... I would understand.
But if you want to share this moment, take time.

At the bottom of this pic, you see a mountain. There, GI's climbed it ! ... And at the top, there were German troops.

Do you understand it was impossible for them to not be massacred ?... And "fortunately", Germans stayed totally surprised by the attack.
Can you imagine if they were prepared ?...

REMEMBER OMAHA

They climbed aboard with anxious heart

The madly sea-tossed landing-craft,

The sea-fog on that sad morn

All but shrouded the pale dawn,

As if heaven itself dared not see

The hounds od hell that day set free.

They disembarked under hail of shot,

Spewing up all - one knew not what -

Facing tghose cliffs, with gunfire ablaze

Waves bore broken bodies along

The length od that encrimsoned strand,

Where Datah was given so free a hand.

The were no heroes

Though all were heroic

In that enventful day,

Where mankinf put all at stake.

It’s an inderstatement to say

That our liberty was dearly bought

At the time od that first onslaught.

The foam is red.

All is now still, save for the breeze

That carries back, accross the seas

The souls od America’s sons,

Whilst the sun, now and then, warms

Those twenty-year-olds who sleep today

Facing the sea in Normandy.

Jean Goujon.

Then, we've visited Museum. 

France was divided in two part : An occupied zone, and a free zone, after 1940. South was "free zone"till 1942.

In November 1942, in Toulon (where I live), French Navy stubble 115 military ships and machines, to not fall in the hands of German Army. Submarines refuse to do it and go in North Africa to keep on fighting.

But we were under a collaborative government. The Vichy's Government. Which is a part of our History some don't like to remember.   

Some pictures are overwhelming.

This one breaks my heart.

At the end of the visit, we watched a recapitulative movie with archives images. So sad.
There were interview from old survivors.

At the end, an old nurse said : "Each time I come back in France and in Normandy, even young people still thank us. I think they are much more conscious of what we've lost, coming here, than a lot of Americans."

We ended with US Cemetery. 

Nine thousand three hundred and eighty four persons are buried here.

Strangely, place is not sad. It is just really gorgeous. 

I want to close this post with a French song, from a very famous French singer : Michel Sardou.

Everyone in France, knows this song, written in 1967. Some hated it. Others just loved it. 

But every frenchmen know it. Everyone.

"The incomparable Michel Sardou wrote this in 1967 when anti-American sentiment in France was being generated by de Gaulle, as a reminder of the debt owed to the Americans and the Allies. Many Americans today believe the French hate the Americans, and hopefully this translation will help to dispel this fiction. Whenever this song is performed the audience reaction is the same: an outpouring of emotion. The French do not forget their friends".

If Yanks were not there

You would all be in Germany

To speak of I don't know what

To salute I don't know who...

Of course, years have passed

The guns have changed hands

Is this a reason to forget

That, one day we needed them.

A guy who came from Georgia

Who did not care at all about you

Is dead in Normandy

One morning when you were not there.

Of course, the years have passed

We became buddies

A shot of the friendly,

They say they have fallen for nothing

If the Yanks were not there

You would all be in Germany

To speak of I don't know what

To salute I don't know who...

And you know what ?... Here, in Normandy and Brittany, you'll see much more Americans Flags in gardens, or on cars, even in ranches, than French Flags.