Apache Junction Seekers

Al and Linda enjoy visiting new places and having new experiences. In 2006, we spent 4 months in Europe and originally created this blog to keep friends and family informed. After a long delay, I'm trying to catch up with what we've been doing since then and hope to carry on into the future.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Al and the Normandy Invasion Beaches

June 6, 2006, marked the 62nd anniversary of D-Day but interest in the Normandy Invasion seems stronger than ever. Many of the museums were expanded and spiffed up for the 50th anniversary, which many thought might be the last big one, and today they are still undergoing expansions. Battlefield tourism is also an expanding industry to judge by the small vans zipping around with names like Battlebus.com emblazoned on the side. The parking lots are full of license plates not only from France, The Nethrlands and Belgium but also from as far away as Denmark, Poland, Italy and the Czech Republic not to mention the hordes of cars and camping cars from Germany. The ranks of uniformed re-enactors driving restored jeeps around the countryside contain not only gray-beards but also young men of an age to have died on that first D-Day. It seems as if the Greatest Generation lives on if only in memory.

Al has been interested in the history of WWII since the seventh grade and while not a serious student, he thought that he had a pretty good grasp of the subject. Our first visit to the area was only a few days but on this extended visit, he's added tremendously to his knowledge and also to his understanding. In addition to going to more museums, and learning something from each one, we've been able to visit and revisit some of the sites and to take the time to understand the routes and the villages impacted by the invasion.

In the museums, he's noted the numbers of artifacts that have been donated in the past few years. It appears that the old soldiers are dying off and someone is making sure that their collections have a good home. Just another way of ensuring that old soldiers never really die.

The apartment that we're staying in is in a building that dates back to 1752, which is actually pretty recent for the area. Since it stands a mere kilometer inland from Juno Beach, where the Canadians had better luck than the Americans at Omaha Beach, one supposes that these stones have seen their fair share of war. After all, it predates the French Revolution!

One also assumes that the building was significantly rebuilt after the invasion like so much of Normandy. This rebuilding had to be done with a drastically reduced able-bodied population thanks to the enormous number of civilian casualties. If you get your history only from the military or Hollywood perspective, it is hard to appreciate that the Allies were directly responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Fench civilians. We believed then, as we believe now, that it was a necessary action, but one might not blame the French for having different emotions. Despite this, every D-Day they dress up as American GIs and fly American flags.

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