D-Day Beaches
From K&J's EUROPEAN TRIP in St Brevin les pin, France on Nov 27 '07
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- Thanks to 3 others camper next to us, we had a great night sleep. After a read-up on the history of the area, we decided to go to the place where most of the action took place Omaha Beach (D-day beach). Before we arrived there, by potluck we spotted a sign to ‘The Longues Battery’ site so we did a quick detour. This was so amazing as it was the location where the Germans built 4 massive thick steel reinforced concrete bunkers with 152mm guns placed inside. (Kev wanted to bring one back to add to Mark’s collection but Wikki said no!! With a range of over 12 miles the crows wouldn’t stand a chance). We learnt that even with ‘precision’ & about 1000 tons of bombs, the allies could not destroy these German bunkers. When we explored them it was easy to see why…they built them basically into a hill/mound (hard to detect or see) but more so the concrete was 150cm in thickness. Unreal!! Only 2 of the 4 looked as though they had been hit majorly with the gun absolutely shattered. However, the other 2 were as good as new with minor bullet chips on the concrete roof. We also learnt that they built an aiming device 800mtres ahead along the beach, so we drove and walked up to check it out. No wonder the Germans were so hard to defeat. Even after al these years, their engineering is brilliant, nearly totally intact. The part that topped our morning off was as we were walking back to the car we stumbled across a patch of wild poppies. How amazing, this really lifted our spirits. We then headed to the American cemetery were over 10 thousand white crosses lay for those who died in the battles. The site itself was very overwhelming yet peaceful as the gardens, memorial, paths etc were immaculate. Quiet moving but we are so glad we saw it. The rest of the day was dedicated to travels. We made it to the west coast and saw the Airbus factory where the new giant airbus 380 airplanes are built. Having huge troubles locating our free camp spot we decided on a caravan park. So all toasted and showered up we had a spag bol dinner and off to bed.
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