23/7 - D Day Beaches
There was supposed to be a summer D Day bus line, but it only ran from Wed-Fri. Wth.
After the Commonwealth cemetery, we visited the location of Pegasus Bridge, the capture of which was portrayed in the 1962 film - the Longest Day. The place was originally called Benouville, but it was renamed Pegasus Bridge (the codename) later. The thing is that the locals actually call it that, as opposed to terms like "Omaha Beach", "Sword Beach" etc, which are only used by the locals.
There was a museum there and the owner was present and gave us a lot of information.
The original Pegasus Bridge. They bought it for a symbolic price of 1 Franc (never actually paid) when it was replaced in view of heavier traffic (and not due to bullet holes). The restoration cost 200,000 pounds.
They used gliders to capture the bridge because planes would've been too noisy. There were 30 people per glider, and 3 gliders per beach (?), so that made it 6 gliders in all. The reason for using gliders rather than jumping from planes was so they wouldn't get scattered like the Americans.
Landing the glider was basically crashing rather than landing, especially in the terrain they had:
Marshland. Apart from the red houses in the background it looks the same as it did in 1944, even with the electricity pylon.
The Germans placed explosives on Pegasus Bridge, a key point, in the day, but took them out at night (since they were afraid the French resistance would take the explosives and use them to blow things up). When the British landed there were 15 Germans faced by 90 Brits. Most of the former fled, and the rest surrendered within 10 minutes.
In less than half an hour they'd liberated Benouville, just before midnight on June 5th.
Remains of an actual glider
Reconstructed Horsa glider (only 1 was left in England and they copied it). Only the tyres are original. They bought them off a farmer who used them for his tractor or something.
A Scottish general who never moved off without his bagpipes (wth) led the attack on Sword Brach; when they heard his bagpipes, they knew the reinforcements were coming (in the Longest Day, the fella played the bagpipes while walking across the bridge. The bagpiper told the owner of the museum that he was 19 at the time and running across the bridge). His reinforcements came to secure the bridge, 2 minutes late (2 past noon), and he apologised. Gah.
The British were extremely proud of their glider pilots' accuracy - the first glider landed 57m from the bridge and the other 2 only a bit behind. So they placed markers where they landed. The Commander-in-Chief, Allied Expeditionary Air Force called it the "probably the finest piece of precision flying in the whole of World War II".
Improvised bridge (Bailey bridge)
2 years ago, 10 of Major Howard's men were at the memorial ceremony. This year only 2 were.
More shots of the bridge. Maybe you can see the bullet holes.
M3 A1 half-track and quadruple 12.7mm AA gun mounting
We were dropped at the museum for 1 hour, but after the movie screening and a very enthusiastic guided tour we had less than 10 minutes. Oh well.
Mark where the first glider landed, and a bust of John Howard. In the background you can see where the third glider landed, and further back the second.
Looking at the bridge from the mark.
There were very funny plaques in the settled area nearby saying that that one location saw the "first Allied victory", another was the "first house in France to be liberated" etc. Gah. The Pegasus Bridge was also touted as the "first bridge liberated in Continental France". !@#$%^&*() (I'm not sure if this was on a plaque, though)
Avre tank. This was the Commander's tank, ergo the graduated markings, so troops could see where he was shooting.
Dog tags were introduced after World War II because there were too many unknown soldiers in that war. Too bad, as I recall from the Berlin tour, that in the bombings of Berlin a lot of records were destroyed, making the tags useless.
Command post at the Hillman position
Garage
A sign said the capture of the Hillman position was the first achievement in the liberation of France. Gah - they might as well erect a memorial where the first paratrooper liberated the first square inch of occupied France.
Sword Beach. It was low tide and the last buoy could be seen. There was also the low tide smell (rotting seaweed). Ugh.
There was a couple walking down the road and the guy held a dog in his arms. The dog's tongue was sticking out. The people in my minivan commented that the dog was tired.
The guide was telling someone that before William the Conqueror got Papal endorsement to invade England (based on perjury over the bones of a saint), his nobles had been reluctant to pledge their help. So much for religion being irrelevant, and always a byproduct of or controlled by politico-socio-economic realities, as fashionable reductionism might have it. Ideologies both shape and are shaped by politico-socio-economic realities, so the chain of causation is not one way.
We were told that there were 2 maple trees at the Canadian cemetery. Maybe they should've imported some bald Eagles for the American one.
Remains of the British mulberry (artificial port) at the beach. No one was paying for either the maintenance of destruction of it, so it was just left to rot.
Former German defence position
The binoculars at the mulberry beach were provided by Euroscope, and they were the most expensive ever, costing €0,50 or €1 (I hope €1 got you twice as much viewing time).
Returning to Bayeux, I walked down a big street and got the shock of my life on seeing:
Malaysian Mannikins
FRANCE, HOW CAN YOU DO THIS TO ME?! I HAD FAITH IN YOU!!!1OMGWTHBBQ~!
The establishment to boycott for eternity
Timber-framed house. Oldest, biggest in Bayeux (14th century)
2 Danes were eating spaghetti with ketchup in the hostel because they were too lazy/stingy to get read food. Uhh.
The chainsmoking old man running the hostel who spoke absolutely no English at all was also the most unfriendly French person I met in France in July - when I bonjoured him he didn't bonjour me in return. At least his wife was slightly more conversant. (Review of the place: "The owner knows little English and will be much more friendly if an attempt is made to speak in French. Possibly because of this, there is little information provided upon check in on breakfast time (starts at 8 a.m.) and dinner time (7:30 p.m.) and it is not clear as to whether an indication needs to be made for one's presence at dinner.; Apart from the owner who is a bit strange and doesn't always confirm reservations, the place was awesome.")
It seems there's a quota that 3/5 of the songs played on the radio in France must be in French. Somehow I'd always thought it was higher.
One Dane said he thought 60 minutes was a good show to watch, and then one episode talked about Denmark and everything was wrong.
One person complained about the positioning of French public restrooms - he said the Men's washrooms were always placed first, the urinals placed near the door and often the doors were left open so girls would walk by and see.
One US girl on a study abroad tour said she ate more McDonalds in Europe than in the US because it was open late and cheap.
Apparently in Poland and Russia TV dubbing sucks - one person does all the voices and they dub in a monotone voice. Perhaps the worst bit is that you can hear the English audio channel softly in the background.
You always hear about Singaporeans who, when they go overseas, get questioned about their country and don't know what to say. The day before, there had been an American at the hostel choke-full of the weirdest questions. I felt like I was under cross-examination and on the witness stand.
Among other things, he asked what the penalty for possessing pot was (I only knew about the penalty for having 1 kg, what got you the death penalty in Singapore besides murder and drugs (he asked about attempted murder and rape, and I had no idea). What took the cake, though, was asking if you could be charged in Singapore if you went to China and bribed someone (I have since found out that the answer is yes). My reply was that: "I'm not sn expert on the finer points of extraterritorial legislation", and someone commented that it was a good rejoinder.
This person also commented that the Bayeux Family Home had a very good atmosphere and that there were lots of friendly people there, which was why he'd extended his stay.
