Saturday, March 27, 2010

Operation Overlord

June 6,

1944.

D Day.

Le jour J.

The first day of the Invasion of Normandy and the first implementation of Operation Overlord. Number of Allied soldiers who landed on the beaches of Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword: 132,000. Number of Allied losses: 10,500. One-tenth of the invading soldiers died on a single day.

As you can tell, this last excursion was more than a little depressing. Although I had a great time and the beaches were beautiful and it was cool being in Normandy, it was really eye opening and just plain heartbreaking.

We began our trip at Caen, the site of a very important battle during the Normandy invasion. Starting the trip at the Caen memorial and museum was smart because it refreshed everyone’s knowledge of events before, during and after World War II and prepared us well for the beaches and cemeteries. Once inside, we followed a circular timeline around this enormous ball which had pictures, posters and blurbs of the end of World War I, the Roaring Twenties, the rise of totalitarianism, the Great Depression, the rise of the Nazis and finally, the outbreak of World War II.

Once downstairs, German, Soviet, and French propaganda littered the walls. There were battle plans, gas masks, clothing items and newspaper headlines. I watched a documentary about the heroics of the RAF (Royal Air Force) during The Battle of Britain and then all of us watched a short film called The Battle of Normandy. Both films were in black and white, but the latter was cool because it divided the screen in half. On the right half were the Allied forces and on the left, the Germans. When D-Day actually started the two halves became one. After watching footage from D-Day, computer animation was used to show the different battles that took place after D-Day. It was interspersed with short clips of fighting and before and after photos of French villages.

After that I toured the gift shop, found a memorial garden dedicated to the Americans (there was a Canadian garden too which I didn’t get to see) and located a Nobel Peace Prize gallery which lists all the winners in every category. Next was the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial.

The American Cemetery is located alongside Omaha beach and is operated by the American government, free from French taxes in gratitude for the United States’ support during the war. Omaha and Utah were where the American troops invaded while Gold and Sword were British and Juno was Canadian.

To prepare myself, I watched the beginning of Saving Private Ryan the night before because the opening scene features this same cemetery. I will never forget the first time I saw Saving Private Ryan. I was in 10th grade American history and I was so horrified by the staggering number of crosses, I cried. I’d been to Arlington National Cemetery when I was in 5th grade, but when you’re that young it’s hard to appreciate the gravity and magnitude of the situation. (Opening scene from SPR: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZJANhWizUY)

While wandering among the crosses I noticed that most of them had the date June 6, 1944. It probably shouldn’t have been surprising, considering it was the first day of battle, but it was still extremely sobering. On the back of each cross was a number (which I assume was the man’s military service number) and on the front was their name, rank (most were privates), military unit, state and date of death. Jewish soldiers had the Star of David rather than a cross.
I decided to try to find a soldier who died on my birthday (July 25) and it took less than thirty seconds. I found that truly depressing. I also found the name “Emil” on several of the crosses and I kept thinking that could have been Grandpa. (Grandpa’s name is Emil and he fought with the Marines in the Pacific.) Exactly 9, 387 men are buried here with 307 unknown. On the “Walls of the Missing” are inscribed another 1, 557 names. Though very sad, it really is a beautiful tribute to the heroic men who died on the beaches of Normandy.

Afterwards we went down to Omaha beach. There were these really amazing sculptures in the sand and this other monument that kinda looked like a ramp from a skate park. (Snapped a shot of Adam, who very patriotically, wore his red, white and blue Washington Capitals jersey.) We only had 15 minutes at the beach so I didn’t race down to the water with the others. Instead, I sat on the steps just thinking about what had happened on these sands sixty six years earlier. The beach was beautiful, but I don’t think I’d ever be able to swim around or play games at this beach knowing that so many men died on its shores.

Next we went to the Point du Hoc which is in between Utah and Omaha beach and I was totally unprepared for what I saw. The whole field was a mass of enormous potholes which was the work of aerial bombardment. Someone joked that it was the worst golf course they’d ever seen. Funny—until you realize that a division of Texas Rangers actually used these craters as shelter from gunfire and snipers while working their way across the point. These Texas Rangers had been ordered on a near-suicidal mission to scale the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc in order to destroy the guns at this location. It was vital that the guns be destroyed since they could fire at either Utah or Omaha beach. However, the Rangers weren’t told that the artillery had been removed to an unknown location a couple days earlier so when they reached the top they were being picked off by snipers and the guns weren’t to be found. Eventually, two soldiers found the well-camouflaged guns about a kilometer away and destroyed them.

Originally the plan was to send in reinforcements after the Rangers reached the top, but as they were 40 minutes off schedule and had lost the element of surprise, it was thought the mission had failed. Thus, the reinforcements were diverted to Omaha beach (which in the end really helped out the Americans at Omaha) and couldn’t be sent for until two days later. By that time there were only 90 men left out the 225 who were part of the mission. Standing on the cliff and looking down to the ocean, I can’t believe they actually succeeded. It looks totally impossible.

I went into one of the bunkers and couldn’t see anything; it was pitch black and it reeked (of God knows what) in there. It made me feel a little bit sorry for the Germans. Anyone with claustrophobia would have gone crazy in there. I also squeezed into one of the foxholes on the cliff. Really this place would have been perfect for “Capture the Flag,” but again I don’t think that would be very respectful.

The last place we visited was the La Cambe German war cemetery. It felt more like a cemetery than the American and twice as many men were buried there (21,222 with 207 unknown burials). We also passed a Polish cemetery (which I mention because I’m half Polish) and lots of cows, sheep and horses. I should also probably mention that the Normandy region is famous for its Camembert cheese, cidre, Calvados (a highly alcoholic apple brandy), oysters, andouille sausage, crème fraiche, and of course, the Bayeux tapestry.

Here's hoping this post reminds you of all you have to be thankful for,

Heidi

The spiky things are called Czech hedgehogs, and the gas mask definitely reminds me of Greedo from Star Wars (the alien who tries to shoot Han Solo in the cantina). The chapel, mosiac, and engraving are all from the American cemetery.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Peanut Butter Jelly Time














Today was the Journée Internationale and it was a blast! Our group of Americans had been meeting on Thursdays during lunch for several weeks planning for this day and it was a huge success. No countries were allowed to use flags (apparently the Chinese students get very offended when the Taiwanese students try to bring out their flag), but we could decorate with red, white and blue; in fact, we borrowed France's decorations. We had a slideshow going with pictures of the entire US and music playing from a stereo, also borrowed from the French.

One of my friends located some good peanut butter and strawberry jam so we made a bunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for our food item. It was so simple, yet sooo delicious. The hardest part was not eating the sandwiches after they were made because all of us hadn't had a PB & J in sooo long! Plus the sandwiches were perfect because people here really don't know what they're all about. At first, they were weirded out by the peanut butter, looked at it as if it were poison and said things like, "Peanut butter? What?" But usually after tasting it their skepticism faded and they were saying, "Wow this is SO good!" And we were like, "We know!"

One French girl liked PB & J so much she came running up to our table, dragging her friends behind her and started jumping up and down she was so excited. She made all her friends try the sandwiches and then if they didn't like it, she'd eat it for them. She came back after every class period for more. Her enthousiasm for peanut butter was awesome, and very contagious. By the time I finally ate a sandwich, I was hopping up and down too. I hope that I will never again take peanut butter for granted. I just feel bad that the girl couldn't try American peanut butter. If I ever find out who she is I'll have to send her a jar of Skippy or Jif.

The other food was great too. I love trying new things and it was so much fun going from station to station, eating the food and looking at the other countries' costumes and decorations. The countries represented were France, Poland, Vietnam, Japan, China, Korea, Holland, Mexico and the US. The Vietnamese girls donned these beautiful dresses and served shrimp flavored rice cake things along with sausage and sticky rice. Poland served some carmel candies and bread (I think babka piaskowa) and danced around to Polka music.

The Japanese and Korean girls wore their kimonos and made this cabbage cake from Japan called okonomi-yaki and these delicious Korean noodles. They were also writing peoples names in characters so I had my name written in Korean and three different ways in Japanese.

There were two French booths, one with Angers specialties like chocolates filled with Cointreau jelly and Quernons d’Ardoise (nougat coated in blue chocolate), and the other with pate du foie gras, roquefort cheese, and le petit-suisse on a baguette along with rice pudding and madeleines. Mexico made guacamole with chips (another food I'd been craving) and this chocolate and chile thing that was really interesting, but very good. They had a lot of decorations from Mexico, including a neato boxing mask.

I helped Laura and Isabel make their vlaflip (plain yogurt mixed with vanilla yogurt) and took over for them when they wanted to try some things. I had to explain to people who came up that I wasn’t actually from Holland, but that the wooden shoes are called klompen and that there are lots of cows, windmills and tulips there. It was fun pretending to be Dutch and funnier still when Moe joined me behind the table. I'm pretty sure they knew she wasn't Dutch.

But the best part of the whole thing was the fact that us Americans taught the other students how to line dance. We taught them the Cupid Shuffle, Electric Slide, Hand Jive, Macarena (I hope Mexico was cool with that), Soulja Boy, Cotton Eyed Joe and the Cha Cha Slide. We played songs from the Beach Boys, YMCA, Don't Stop Believin', Grease, Party in the USA, Thriller (one girl knew the entire dance), and Single Ladies (another girl danced this exactly like Beyonce and put the rest of us to shame). Everytime there was a break for class we’d start dancing in the hallway and have passerbys join us. It was like High School Musical ... but in college and in France. Everyone had such a great time. And better yet, I jokingly asked my my socio-culturelle teacher if we could get extra credit for putting this on and she said yes! This is perfect considering her mid-term is going to be a monster.

Bye, Au revoir, Do widzenia, Tạm biệt, Sayonara, Zài jiàn, To boayo, Dag, Adiós!

Heidi

Picture of me and my langue prof, Mme Billette! (And yes in one of the pictures, I'm the only one with my eyes closed.)