Woodbury Island Adventures: June 2017

Thursday, March 9th we drove down to Portsmouth England. There we boarded our family and car onto a ferry and sailed across to France. It was a six hour trip and we enjoyed relaxing, reading, watching movies and playing games. We arrived in France at 9:30 that evening and drove to Bayeux France to our hotel.
The next morning we walked around the city and visited the Bayeux Tapestry. The tapestry is an embroidered cloth that is nearly 70 meters (230 ft) long and 50 centimeters (20 in) tall. It depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England concerning William, Duke of Normandy, and Harold, Earl of Wessex, later King of England, and culminating in the Battle of Hastings. That is one thing that Abby wanted to do since she had been studying it in class at school. I do have to say we were not excited about it but were pleasantly surprised and all enjoyed ourselves.
We then headed to the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. It is the final resting place of nearly 10,000 member of the US military. It overlooks Omaha Beach, the launching point of the U.S. invasion of Normandy, and the cemetery contains the graves of 9,386 American soldiers who died at Normandy. It is also a touching memorial to another 1,557 whose bodies were never recovered. The feeling you get when you walk around the corner and see that cemetery is a feeling that is unexplainable. It was so sad to see so many graves and so many that have written on them "HERE RESTS IN HONORED GLORY A COMRADE IN ARMS KNOWN BUT TO GOD."
After walking around and just being thankful for the men that served our country we headed to Sainte Mere Eglise for a jeep tour. We rode in a jeep from the 1940's from the war. The guide was so full of knowledge and took us to places that we would not have found on our own. He took us to one spot that they used as a hospital. Another was where they put up a radio tower and turned that into a command center. He showed us pictures from the war that families in the area had shared and one house is still owned by the same family generations later. On our tour we went to Utah Beach, which was so beautiful. It was really neat to see people running with horses on the beach. We greatly enjoyed our time with him!
Saturday morning we drove down to Mount Saint-Michel, an island commune in Normandy, France. The island has held strategic fortifications since ancient times and since the 8th century AD has been the seat of the monastery from which it draws its name. The structural composition of the town exemplifies the combination of a legal and a military customs type of society that it was contracted on. On top, God, the Abbey and Monastery; below, the great halls; then stores and housing; and at the botton, outside the walls, houses for fisherman and farmers. It was fascinating and beautiful!!! We had so much fun exploring and learning.
Sunday morning we headed back to the port and sailed back across to England. There are so many places and things that you could see in regards to Normandy, we could have spent a few more days there.

Exploring Bayeux

Bayeux Tapestry

Bayeux Cathedral (13th Century)

American Cemetery and Memorial

Looking down to Omaha Beach.

"HERE RESTS IN HONORED GLORY A COMRADE IN ARMS KNOWN BUT TO GOD."

A soldier from Iowa.

Jeep Tour

This is at Turqueville, about two miles from Saint Mere Eglise, this is a 101st AB paratrooper and a German officer picture taken in the afternoon on June 6th, 1944.

In tribute to the 101st airborne division who established here, at the chateau De Colombiere, the first allies surgical hospital on the Normandy soil on June 6th, 1944.

This was the De Colombiere, allied surgical hospital.

Crater in the ground from a bomb.

This is at the Holdy a hamlet about one mile from Sainte Marie du Mont, this was an aid station established June 6th in the morning, the Doctor on the picture (3rd from left) is Doctor Lage, 101st AB 326th Med Co. he travelled around in the area with his personal camera and he made quite a few of very interesting historical photographs on D-DAy.

Looking towards Sainte Marie du Mont.

This was taken very early on June 6th at Sainte Marie du Mont, habitants and 101st AB paratroopers in front of the village's water pump, probably take while the 4th Inf. Div. was landing at Utah Beach.

This is taken at Saint Marie du Mont facing the opposite direction of the water pump later in the morning on June 6th, this is when the soldiers of the 4th Infantry division entered the town with troopers from the 101st AB division who just secured the gun positions at the Brecourt allowing the the soldiers landed on Utah Beach to move inland.