Euro 2025 ~ Normandy …

This morning courtesy of Aer Lingus, I leave Dublin for a two-hour flight to Paris CDG. From there, I have a four-hour drive to Bayeux in Normandy.

It was in Normandy on 6 June 1944 ~ D-Day , the Allied forces launched the largest amphibious invasion in the history of warfare. Codenamed Operation Overlord, the landings on the five designated beaches marked the start of a long and costly campaign to liberate North-West Europe from a brutal Nazi occupation. On the morning of D-Day, ground troops landed across five assault beaches – Sword, Juno, Gold, Omaha and Utah. The statistics of the day are staggering, 11000 aircraft, 5000 vehicles landed, 5000 ships and landing craft used to disembark more than 133,000 troops from Britain, Canada and the United States onto the defended beaches of Normandy. A further 23,000 troops from three airborne divisions, had already landed by parachute and glider to secure the flanks of the invading forces. The naval and air support was provided by all countries of the Commonwealth, as well as by France, Czechoslovakia, Greece, The Netherlands, Norway and Poland. By the end of the day, the landing forces had established themselves on shore and could begin the advance into France.

Over the next few days, I will visit all five landing beaches, a few of the dedicated museums, memorials and very importantly for me some of the cemeteries. I will also take time to visit the location at Abbaye d'Ardenne, where twenty Canadian POW's were murdered ~ eighteen on June 7th and 8th (D+1 and D+2), and two on June 17th (D+11), by the 12th SS Panzer Division, the Hitler Youth. Of the twenty, twelve were from the North Nova Scotia Highlanders.

The background to what is a very personal visit to Normandy …

It was over 25 years ago on Monday April 10th 2000; I was at the end of a four-day trip to Belgium and France with my parents. We had been there to visit the war graves of two relatives, Hugh Wright from WWII in Belgium and John Kerr in The Somme from WWI. After our final overnight stay in Ypres, Flanders, we had a drive to the ferry port of Zeebrugge on the Belgian coast. During that journey knowing that I had some spare time, I decided to take a slight diversion to the French coastal town of Dunkirk (Dunkerque).

Due to the enormous interest that both my dad and I had in World War history, it was a stop that I felt we had to make. To be at the place and stand on the beach where between the dates of 26 May and 4 June 1940, over 338000 Allied troops from mainly Britain, Belgium and France were evacuated (or perhaps more accurately ~ rescued) from days of continuous bombardment courtesy of the German Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe. They had been driven there by the haste of the blitzkrieg through the Low Countries of Europe.

Operation Dynamo the code name for the evacuation, has often been written in history as “The Miracle of Dunkirk”. The Royal Navy provided 39 destroyers and other ships, the Merchant Navy supplied ferries, tug boats, trawlers and many other vessels that were available in British ports. But what I suppose Dunkirk is remembered most for, is the hundreds of civilian yachts, pleasure crafts, river boats and other small vessels, that crossed the treacherous English Channel to help. Due to their size, the larger naval and merchant ships could not reach the stranded army in the shallows of the beach. So, without those civilian manned boats, the evacuation would have failed, resulting in the loss of the complete British Expeditionary Force (BEF). This would have been an absolute disaster, which would have left a cloud of doubt about Britain’s ability to fight on, leaving the door open much wider for the German planned invasion of Britain, Operation Sealion. 

Small craft on their way up the River Thames in London on 4 June 1940, after taking part in the evacuation

I remember well my first observation upon arriving at the beach in Dunkirk ~ how amazingly big it was. With the tide out it was absolutely enormous. I had never seen such a vast beach; it took a tremendous effort to focus on the far-off water’s edge. 

From where we parked the car at the sea wall, my dad and I started walking towards the water. I cannot remember how long it took to get there, but it was a very long walk. What remains furthermost in my memory from 25 years ago on that beach at Dunkirk, was throughout the time we shared together walking and then standing at the water’s edge, we never spoke one word to each other. I suspect like me, my dad was consumed in his thoughts about what had happened at this very spot 60 years beforehand. I know the whole time I was there, all I could think about was but the incredible devastation, the constant ground and air bombardment, the tens of thousands of men lining up to board the small boats in the shallows of the beach, which if luck remained on their side, would ferry them out to the waiting bigger ships. My thoughts were so deep, it was almost like I could see, feel and hear it all going on around me ~ it was an incredible experience ~ where for the first time in my life I felt in real time a physical connection to history.

Photos of the evacuation ...

Troops on the beach waiting evacuation, continually  strafed and bombed by German aircraft while waiting transport ...

The French destroyer Bourrasque, sunk at Dunkirk with the loss of 500 ...

The aftermath of the evacuation from Dunkirk Beach ...

Many stories tragically ended on that beach in Dunkirk, for some 80000 British, French and Belgian troops their war came to a finish as Prisoners of War, they would not to see the light of freedom for another five years. But what was really heartbreaking, 22000 allied troops and 2000 civilians lost their lives. 

The British casualties are buried at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) site ~ Dunkirk Town Cemetery. There is also a CWGC Memorial ~ Dunkirk Memorial which has inscribed 4508 names of those who perished on the beach and have no known grave.

The Dunkirk Memorial with 4508 names of those who are missing and have no known grave

Those that did come home ...

The visit to Dunkirk 25 years ago had a huge impact upon me, I knew from my own reading and research that in the aftermath of “The Miracle of Dunkirk”, Britain was on its knees and alone; massive supplies of ammunition, machine guns, tanks, motorcycles, jeeps and anti-aircraft artillery and so much more was left in occupied France. Winston Churchill who had only just become Prime Minister on May 10th, three weeks before the retreat and evacuation, said in the House of Commons after what he described as the "Miracle of Deliverance", ~ “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”

I believe this period in 1940 was perhaps the lowest point in all of Britain’s centuries of history. From this low point  in further speeches, Winston Churchill's voice became the instrument of reassurance and inspiration,  radiating confidence and belief in an anxious and worried nation.

He said in a speech to the House of Commons on June 4th, 1940 ~ 

"We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."

 

As I walked with my dad again in complete silence back towards the Dunkirk seawall, my thoughts were fixed on the events of May and June 1940, and of the very real expectations within the corridors of power in London that Britain’s defeat to Hitler was inevitable. I then thought about D-Day and Operation Overlord, the successful Allied invasion of Normandy in France, which took place just four years after Dunkirk. Within the minds of those who had been rescued from Dunkirk, I doubt if many could ever have imagined that such a reversal in fate was possible. I knew at that point, I had to plan a return to Europe and take my dad to Normandy, where his cousin Hugh Wright came ashore in June 1944, and was tragically killed later in Belgium in October 1944.

When we got back to the car, I said to him ~ “we will come back sometime later and do the Normandy beaches” ~ So, 25 years on, after a lot of life got in the way, I am doing that ~ but sadly not with my dad. 

King George VI in a radio address on D-Day, 6 June 1944, where he references the aftermath of Dunkirk and the challenge ahead in Normandy ~

"Four years ago, our nation and empire stood alone against an overwhelming enemy, with our backs to the wall. Now once more a supreme test has to be faced. This time the challenge is not to fight to survive, but to fight to win the final victory for the good cause. At this historic moment, surely not one of us is too busy, too young, or too old to play a part in a nation-wide, perchance a worldwide vigil of prayer as the great Crusade sets forth."

On the eve of D-Day, General Dwight D. Eisenhower Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, issued the following statement ~

"Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force: You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hope and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944! The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to victory!

I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle.

We will accept nothing less than full victory!

Good luck! And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking."

Below a video link from 2019 by the Imperial War Museum titled “D-Day Explained”, click on the image or the link ~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f2lUwGvW3A

This visit to Normandy and the D-Day beaches is a follow on to my Euro 2024 journey from June of last year. During that trip, I spent time in Scotland before heading over to Belgium, The Netherlands and France, to visit four family war graves together with many WWI and WWII sites ~ the related blogs can be accessed via the sidebar index under June 2024.