D-Day

Today was devoted to visiting living history - all the sombre locations of Normandy where the allied forces landed on 6 June 1944 to liberate France.

We are standing on Omaha Beach where the bulk of troops landed and Spielberg filmed the opening scene of Private Ryan. We also visited the American War Cemetery where some 9600 are buried (another 1,500 are lost on the beach). This represents only 40% of those that died. We also visited the Commonwealth Cemetery where 4,000 mainly British troops are buried (including 17 Australians). The German War Cemetery was the sadest with 21,000 buried - that cemetery is managed by donations and is very stark compared to the American Cemetery.