Commentary
Today marks the 78th anniversary of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy. Visiting the cliffs overlooking the beaches 23 years ago left a memory so vivid that each year I feel obligated to relate that experience in this blog.
Coincidentally, as I went through my archives, I came across a brochure referring to the “bitter-sweet memories” that followed the bloody battles of the day that has become known as The Longest Day. It was the greatest landing force ever assembled by Allied forces, yet it cost the lives of an estimated 150,000 men
At left is a photograph of me standing in front of the massive German 155mm gun battery emplacement atop a 200-foot-high cliff at Longues-sur-Mer, located between Gold and Omaha beaches. It had steel and concrete walls six-feet thick.
The gun had a range of about 12 miles and had a rate of fire of six to eight rounds a minute and was controlled from a command post several hundred yards from the emplacement.
Allied forces bombed the site the evening before the invasion; it suffered little damage. The British cruisers Ajax and Argonaut engaged the battery with its guns, requiring the Germans to undertake repairs. A hit on the ammunition storage caused the most damage.
Although the facility was surrounded by a minefield, barbed wire, machine gun and mortar pits for defense, the garrison of 184 officers and men surrendered without a fight to British troops on June 7.
In memory of those who gave their lives in the Normandy invasion, may God continue to bless the United States of America.
