Fourth former Cole Reade writes our travel journal entry for Tuesday, March 3, 2026.
*Pictures are forthcoming!
In the morning we visited the memorial and museum in Caen, where we examined a bunker where much of the resistance to the landings was directed, as well as items such as a dummy paratrooper used to deceive the Germans and various weapons used in the assault, like a Lee-Enfield rifle discovered decades after the landings.
In the afternoon we traveled to various locations on Omaha Beach. We first stopped at Pointe du Hoc, where Rangers ascended steep cliffs to neutralize an artillery position that could have harassed Allied ships a few miles away at Omaha. Around 250 Rangers destroyed two bomb-proof artillery bunkers (one of which housed a French gun from World War I) and other guns. We noticed the living quarters in the bunkers and the diverse defenses used to protect the bunkers in case of an attack, including a door which could be opened by releasing sand for the defenders to rush to the rear. During the fighting a Ranger threw a singular grenade into the ammunition bunker of one of the bomb-proof bunkers, causing an explosion so powerful that we could still see large pieces of concrete several yards from the crater. Beyond the site we saw and walked by the hedgerows, small fields surrounded by medieval hedges where Allied troops having taken the beaches were repeatedly ambushed by Germans hiding behind the hedges.
We next visited the Normandy American Cemetery which overlooks Omaha, learning about figures such as the Bedford Boys (around 35 soldiers all from the same small town with around nineteen fatalities), Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (who landed on the beach at the age of 56 despite needing a cane), and Woodberry alumni who died in the assault.
Afterwards we saw some monuments on the beach and walked to the water to sight wrecked Higgins boats in the distance and remember what American troops faced on the beach to begin the liberation of western Europe and defeat the tyranny of the Nazis.