D-day Beaches

Later that day we picked up our rental car and headed out to see the WWII beaches.

This is a view of Gold beach, where the British landed. Americans landed slightly further west. The large concrete caissons were put there by the troops to create bridges onto shore, onto which they unloaded tanks and equipment after landing.
Here is one up close.
The town of Arromanches. That region of France is the only place I have ever seen US and British flags waving! Also, this area is one of the few places where the historical plaques and signs are translated into English.
Here is the memorial at Omaha beach, or L'Ohama beach, as the French signs said.
We last went to Pointe du Hoc. This was the place with the greatest allied casualties, in part because of the strength of the German troops there, but also because of the geography, as the rangers had to scale the cliffs. The story of this battle is undoubtedly best explained elsewhere. I was interested to see it because my great uncle Jim Holt was there for the invasion, on a boat offshore called the Satterlee, covering the rangers.
Pointe du Hoc is full of craters from the bombings.
You can still see the German gun posts.
You can't get that close to the edge of the cliffs, but this picture does give an idea of the height that they had to scale.