Day 14 - Thurs 23 Sept - Tours - Omaha Beach

Today we viisted Mont St. Michel which is a huge abbey built on an island called Mont Tombe (Tomb on the Hill).  Construction commencing in 966 with many alterations up until 1895/97.  It is circled by one street and an outer rampart wall.  Shops and cafes predominate here serving the bustling tourist market.  After enjoying crepes and paninis we headed to Liberty Highway to St.Lo and onto the D-Day landing beaches. 

The Americans have opened a new memorial to the soldiers killed during 1944-5.  It is absolutely beautiful and extremely reverent.  The cemetery is laid out in a Latin cross formation and cradles 9000 graves marked by a white stone cross or star of David.  It is on the beach where they stormed ashore on the 6th June 1944 under the command of Dwight Eisenhower.  The new memorial centre illustrates many individual sacrifices and it includes films with actual footage of landing and retreat of the Germans.  It would have been a terrifying sight as 47 divisions, mass aircraft and amphibious vehicles massed over northern France - assisted by overcast weather.  Apparently, the Germans on watch telephoned Hilter's Generals to advise, but they did not believe it and were afraid to awake Hitler to get his permission to move the Panzer tank divisions for reinforcement.  The allies even floated over the English Channel, hollow concrete pontoons to allow vehicles to be offloaded onto the shore.  Much of these pontoons still remain - the planning for D-Day took over a year to organise and its original date of 4 June had to be delayed due to bad weather in the channel.

It was such a sombre moment to view row after row of the stark white crosses and brings to bare the enormous loss of life from war.