WWII Sites

Hello Readers-

We are now in Bayeux, France! While staying here we will be visiting many different areas around us in Normandy.

Yesterday, Monday May 17th, was our classes' day to visit WWII sites in the Normandy region. We started the day visiting German bunkers near the coast that were still intact. Many of them still had long range artillery too! The bunkers were built into small hills making them less visible to enemies. We also saw a few small bunkers that were completely underground and had large storage rooms.

Our next stop was the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. This cemetery was located off of Omaha Beach, one of the beaches the America soldiers stormed on D-day. There were thousands of small white crosses, a few with the Star of David (for Jewish soldiers), and a wall with names of those who were never found after the war. Some of us walked down the cliffs on a path to the actual beach. One girl in our class, Becky, got to experience something really neat. Her grandfather's brother is buried here, and she was able to visit his grave. They gave her sand to put on the white cross (to see his name more clearly), two flags, and some information in a folder. It was really neat that she was able to experience this.

After the American cemetery we made our way toward Utah beach. On the way there we stopped at Sainte-Mere-Eglise, a small town not far from the beaches. Mr. Leers, our tour guide for this area, told us many small stories about what people living here experienced on D-day. The Germans were occupying the town at the time, and there was warfare right outside their homes! After our short stop there, we continued on to Utah Beach, another very famous beach that American troops liberated on June 6th, 1944. There were some memorials, a bunker, a tank, artillery, and a small ship used to reach the beaches. All of these were fun to explore and learn more about World War II. We all walked out onto the beach here too (which appeared larger than Omaha Beach to me) and had fun looking out at the view there. We even discovered what appeared to be a canon, still mostly submerged under the sand! There were so many things to look at here, and not enough time to see it all!

We made one last stop, this time at a German cemetery. It seemed a little strange to have a German cemetery in France, I mean Germany is so close! Clella & Syllvette explained that after the war though, Germany was so devestated that they couldn't even bring their deceased soldiers home, so they buried them closer to where they died. This cemetery was a LOT different than the American cemetery. It was really simple with one large monument in the middle on top of a hill. The grave stones were simple and made of concrete, and there were also small stubby crosses scattered around in clusters. On the other hand, I felt like the American cemetery was more ornate in statues and their crosses were more thin and a clean white. Although the German cemetery was less aesthetically pleasing to my eye, I though both cemeteries seemed to fit their cultures. I also noticed that the American cemetery was a lot more crowded and appeared to be visited more frequently.

After all of these wonderful WWII sites, we jumped back into out 2 vans and headed back to our hotel in Bayeux. We decided to all attend a dinner together, which was a regional specialty of Normandy. Our three course meal started with a salad that included apples, sausage, an apple vinegar dressing and a piece of toast with melted gouda. Our entree was a pork, french fries, yams, and green beans. And for dessert we were given fried apples with a scoop of cinnamon ice cream. It was an interesting assortment, but all very tasty!

As you can tell, we have been really busy here in Bayeux! More to come about our experiences later! Thanks for reading!!

-Stephanie Granger

P.S. HI FAMILY!!!