Normandy : The Calvados region and Allied D-Day landings .
When you speak about Omaha beach, you automatically speak about the Calvados Region,the province in France in wich the beach is located.This region,is without any doubt one of the most beautiful regions of Normandy (not that the others aren't beautiful).Here you can enjoy the typical country life,smell the smooth and soft smell of the cidre apples,enjoy the typical Norman kitchen and drink the fine smooth cidre.The Calvados country is also the bocage (the following up of hedgerows and meadows),the large beaches,the blue channel sea,the colourfull fishermens harbors and evidently this region and Normandy has a large history trough the centuries. The Calvados country is truely a deliscious country.A region also know for her large amount of appletrees,cows and farms.To me a place out of a fairy-tale.For those who love to taste delicacies as the local Calvados,Pommeau and many more,can follow the special Calvados route,following this route you'll pass by the local producers and restaurants.But the Calvados region is not only the country side,it's also the seaside resorts like Honfleur, Deauville and Trouville, but also Ouistreham,Colleville-Sur-Mer,Saint-Laurent-Sur-Mer, Vierville-Sur-Mer and so many others.It's in this peaceful region that D-Day took place,this is the region of the D-Day beaches and their bloody history,it was here that the allies opened the road to freedom.
Colleville-Sur-Mer :
Village on the Calvados coast in the region called Lower Normandy at 10 kms of the harbor Port en Bessin. Located at an altitude of 70 m above sea level it as a surface of 693 ha and a population of 172 residents,the village has his name from his Viking origins it's composed out of the Scandinavian Coli and the Latin Villa. It was her that the first US infantry division came ashore on D-Day in this part of Omaha beach known on the operation maps as FOX GREEN and FOX RED,or the part from the foot of the cliffs called "La Revolution" till the edge of the dunes were WN 62 and the American cemetery are located.For simple summer hollidays Colleville-Sur-Mer has a sailing school,the EOLA -sailing school and a summer village "Village Vacances de France",both are located near the beach,you don't need to search for a dike here ,because there is none,nature made the construction of a dike impossible.From the center of the village you reach the beach following the 5 km long slightly diving road that starts at the townhall and goes trough a forest and meadows landscape.
EOLA sailing school.
Colleville not only has her beautiful beach as curiosity,she also has her hosting farms like the Clos Tassin Farm located at the entrance of the village,were you can stay or in the afternoon and taste the home made Calvados or Pommeau,and you also can buy their home made jams of different kind of tastes and cidre.There's also her church,restaurated after the war,she was destroyed by the navy artillery on D-Day her bell tower housed a snipers nest,five of fifteen bombshells shot from a destroyer downed it,severely damagin the church.
The church back in June 1944
2004
On the local church cemetey you'll encounter the grave of local resistant Bernard Anquetil and a Commonwealth grave the grave of Sergeant-aviator Barrow (RAF).There also is the Big red One museum and the American War Cemetery wich we describe in the chapter consacrated to it.I have to notify that back in June 1944 on the 6th this village was at 8:00 pm only partly liberated,it was totaly liberated after hard German resistance and an heavy fight on June 7th round 11:00 am.
Colleville-Sur-Mer
Saint-Laurent-Sur-Mer
A village located just as Colleville-Sur-Mer on the Calvados coast,in the lower Normandy region at 15 km from Port en Bessin.The village is located at an altitude of 30 m above sea-level.Saint-Laurent-Sur-Mer counts 184 residents for a surface of 390 ha.Saint-laurent-Sur-Mer standed for the Eastern part of the D-Day landings on Omaha beach,this part of Omaha beach was codenamed Easy RED and Easy GREEN, it was in this part that the allies constructed the American artificial harbor,Mullberry A ,this mullberry was destroyed by one of the hardest summerstorms ever noticed in Normandy on June 21st 1944,at very low tide you can still see the wreckage of the harbor in the sea.
Picture : the wreckages of Mullberry A " OMAHA".
Saint-Laurent-Sur-Mer is located near the coastal road D 514, the village is separated from the beach by a dike,on this dike stands the Omaha beach monument dedicated to the troops that came ashore here on June 6th 1944,this monument is also the 0 km markerpost for Omaha beach on the road of freedom.The square on wich it is located is called "Place du Monument " .In the dikewall near the monument a remembrance plaque dedicated to the commando that came ashore here during Operation AQUATINT .On my last visit here,ther was a monument standing on the beach dedicated to the valliant soldiers that made and lived D-Day called THE BRAVES or in french " LES BRAVES".
Picture:Place du Monument .
Picture: "The Braves"
In Saint-Laurent-Sur-Mer many small things remember us the D-Day landings,for example streetnames dedicated to infantry troops or units or local resistants,such as the 2nd US infantry street or the Bernard Anquetil street.The other curiosities are the ,on the local church graveyard located, graves of the three commandos who died here on the beach during operation AQUATINT ,The RUQUET DEFENSIF SITE , the markerstone marking the first temporary American war cemetery,situated on the D514 following the dike towards Vierville-Sur-Mer at the left side of it and the Omaha memorial museum (Of wich we speak in an other chapter), located at two minutes from the Place du monument, heading towards the center of the village. Saint-Laurent-Sur-Mer, is peaceful Norman coast village, were life is good.
Picture: 2nd US Infantry Division street.
Picture:Markerstone marking the first American temporary War cemetery.
Vierville-Sur-Mer :
Village located at the extreme Southern point of Omaha Beach,in the valley of the mount called " Raz de La Percée",it has 237 residents for a surface of 641 ha at an height of 46 m above sea-level.The entrance of the village is located near the dike,were some cottages that survived D-day still stand nowadays,one of these buildings is the Casino Hotel located at the foot of the uptown going road.On the D-Day maps we're standing in the beach sector called DOG RED,DOG GREEN and DOG WHITE .The actual Casino Hotel is not the one that standed over there back in June 1944,this hotel was destroyed by the Navy artillery,because it housed a German Defensif site,the actual building was build on the foundations of the ancient building.
Picture: Vierville-Sur-Mer,village entrance.
Along the cliff rocks a wall was builded,on this wall you'll find several memorial plaques,these plaques remember us the hard fight that took place here at this point of Omaha beach,an hard fight to capture the center of the village and to establish the Omaha beach bridge head.A first bronze plaque reminds us the hard fight the 29th Infantry Division delivered here to open the village acces by destroying the anti-tank wall that standed here.Many soldiers lost their lives here,it was not for nothing Omaha Beach was called the Bloody beach.On the part of the wall at the back of the Casino hotel a plaque dedicated to the Rangers of the 5th batallion,that fought here,this batallion normaly had to join up with Colonel Rudders Rangers of the 2nd batallion at the Pointe du Hoc,but Colonel Rudder had not been able to give the signal of mission accomplished,target reached,so the 5th rangers landed at Omaha beach,fought here ,took the pointe de la Percée and then went landinwards,to join the Pointe du Hoc 48 hours later.
Picture : Plaque honoring the 110th field Artillery Battalion (church wall Vierville center)
Picture : Plaque honoring the 81st Chemical Mortar battalion.
On the blockhouse were, back in 1944, a 88mm canon was housed,and still is,a monument honoring D-Day and the army divisions that landed here ,has been build.At a square in the middle of the head road going upwards the village center you'll find three stone monuments,one dedicated to the units being part of the 29th infantry division,one to the engineers and one dedicated to a head of the local resistance network.When you reach the village and you head to the right following the road that heads toward Grand-Camp-Maisy and Isigny Formigny,you'll encounter a small castle,this castle was the headquarter of the Naval beach batallions,a plaque reminds us of this.On this same road a little further than the castle on the right side you also encounter the OMAHA BEACH MUSEUM that is located in an ancient US ARMY depot,(more about it in an other chapter).
Picture: D-Day monument up the 88mm canon blockhouse .
Picture:plaque dedicated to the 5th Rangers battalion.
Picture: Street dedicated to the Bedford boys who died here on Omaha .
Sgt Eagle Januari 2005.
