Longues-sur-Mer battery, between the landing beaches Omaha and Gold.
I have always wanted to go to Normandy for the WWII history, but when I arrived I was amazed by how much more there was to learn. We took a train from Paris to Caen, then we drove from Caen to Bayeux. When we arrived we took a tour from the company Overlord Tour (five-star service!). First, we went to one of the three British sectors to see the German battlements, each housing a huge cannon. Only one of the three is destroyed because after Normandy we put AA (anti-aircraft) shells and one night they exploded. After that, we went to Omaha Beach. There we saw the huge difference between high tide and low tide. There was a huge controversy about whether to land at high tide or low tide. The decision was finalized by the German defenses: they would have to land at low tide. If they didn’t, more of the first wave would have died because of the hidden traps laid by the Germans. After that, we went to the American graveyard and saw the over 9000 graves overlooking Omaha beach, all of the graves facing home. Finally, we went to Point du Hoc, the place where the Rangers, America’s elite soldiers, climbed a cliff and took a defensive point with strategic value. When they arrived at the top they found out the gun wasn’t there so they searched elsewhere and found the guns and destroyed them. After the tour, we went to a castle to stay the night. While there we learned that the Germans had tanks at our castle before D-Day but a commander ordered them to go to the beaches but they never arrived. If the Germans would have stayed at Chateau Columbieres, chances are that the castle would have been destroyed in the fighting.
