There are a lot of reasons I want to see Normandy. My earliest knowledge of the region concerns the story of Joan of Arc. I learned about her when I was a child and briefly became obsessed by the teenage warrior burned by the English for heresy. While most of her life was in cities south of France, her trial and death took place in Rouen.
Most Americans know Normandy not as the launching pad for the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, or for the architectural feat of Richard the Lionhearted's castle, or for Joan of Arc's death or the region's importance in the 100 Years War. For most American's, when the think of Normandy, they think of Saving Private Ryan - not a terribly good movie, except of course for the first 27 minutes which I think should be required viewing in every high school. A college friend captured my thought process during the movie perfectly when he said, you watch the first 5 minutes and you say, "ok, I get it, time to move on", you watch the next 5 minutes and start thinking "ok I really get it, time to move on", you watch the next 5 minutes and you think "I've had enough" and sometime shortly after that moment it hits you "this was real and I know people who were here and fought through this not for minutes but for hours" and then you really get it. You'll never really know what they went through but you can be grateful they had the strength to get through and build you the world of today.
I have a two favorite D Day quotes - one short and one longer. I'll add them both here. One is from the architect of D Day - General Eisenhower and was spoken during his only post war trip to the area:
these men came here - British and our allies, and Americans - to storm these beaches for one purpose only, not to gain anything for ourselves, not to fulfill any ambitions that America had for conquest, but just to preserve freedom. . . . Many thousands of men have died for such ideals as these. . . but these young boys. . . were cut off in their prime. . . I devoutly hope that we will never again have to see such scenes as these. I think and hope, and pray, that humanity will have learned. . . we must find some way . . . to gain an eternal peace for this world. ("Eisenhower: A Soldier's Life," by Carlo D'Este, p. 705.)
The second quote is from Reagan's Boys of Point du Hoc speech. I remember watching that event live and being very proud to be an American. The 2nd half of the speech doesn't measure up to history as well as the first section because he speaks of the Russian threat - something that seems almost ridiculous now as the Russian President attended the 70th anniversary this past spring. The rest of the speech, where he talks of the men who were there speaks for itself:
We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For 4 long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved, and the world prayed for its rescue. Here in Normandy the rescue began. Here the Allies stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history.
We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France. The air is soft, but 40 years ago at this moment, the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon. At dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June, 1944, 225 Rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs. Their mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the invasion: to climb these sheer and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns. The Allies had been told that some of the mightiest of these guns were here and they would be trained on the beaches to stop the Allied advance.
The Rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers -- the edge of the cliffs shooting down at them with machineguns and throwing grenades. And the American Rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred and twenty-five came here. After 2 days of fighting, only 90 could still bear arms.
Behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them there.
These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.
Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the words of Stephen Spender's poem. You are men who in your ``lives fought for life . . . and left the vivid air signed with your honor.''
I cannot wait to see it all in person!
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