Vacation 2010 - Day 5

Wednesday June 30
Part I

Wanted to take the two day American tour but it didn't fit in my schedule.
So yesterday it was the Band of Brothers and today it is the American Highlights tour.

Ken Moore and Robert Wright, medics for the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, set up their aid station in the village church of Angoville au Plain. One had a one day of medic training and the other had had a week of training. Ken was the tallest trooper in the regiment and Robert was the shortest. Airborne medics were told the best location for an aid station was a church because of there size and protection from the war. Army/navy/airforce were told a target of opportunity were church steeples due to their usefulness to German artillery spotters and lookouts. Fortunately this church was not a friendly fire location. Location

The Americans held the village, then the Germans held the village, and then the Americans held the village, then the Germans held the village and finally the Americans pushed the Germans out for good. Thru the battle the medics operated their aid station treating Americans and Germans provided they followed one rule. Leave your gun(s) outside the door. One German officer brought his gun in, after two hours he put his gun outside and then they patched him up.

Two German soldiers, hiding in the steeple, surrendered to the medics who promptly put them to work. When the Germans retook the village they would hide under the pews covered with parachutes. The Germans soldiers fighting were a veteran front line unit and the two that surrendered were draftees did not want to return to the front line.

The evening of the 6th a wounded trooper was brought in. There was no room on a pew or the floor so he was placed on top the alter. The only supplies were those the medics had jumped with and all those had been used. All they had were bandages made from parachutes. Unable to stop the bleeding the trooper died before dawn. Of the 80 they treated only two died and they felt at least one of those would have survived if they had had more plasma. Ten years ago the church refinished the alter to cover the blood stains of the mortally wounded trooper. Didn't have my flash with me but scroll down to the third set of pictures the see bloodstained pews.

On the 8th four tanks, from Utah beach, rolled thru the village, shot up the church and bullets ricocheted around the church. The tankers didn't see red crosses on the church. A trooper used the intercom, on the rear of Sherman tank, to tell them to quit shooting the church. Ambulances were sent with supplies and to take the wounded to the field hospital.

A stain glass window in honor of the medics.

Completely unrelated, the guide pointed out a location, in the church courtyard, where the government had recently dug up a grave. If a grave isn't tended to at least once a year it will be removed.

Brain teaser, what's wrong with this picture? Hint, the camera was pointed north and if needed click on the picture for a larger one. Location

Utah Beach at the start of causeway #2. The German command bunker had lost communication (a bomb had severed the land line) with German artillery and was unable to direct fire onto the beach. Location

Causeway #2 was one of four that led off of Utah Beach. On D-day the causeways were a taller one-lane roads, not much wider then a tank, with 3-4' of water on each side. The Germans had flooded everything between the beach and the exit of the causeway where the elevation is 80-100 feet higher. These was area where paratroopers drown. On the right side is a six foot deep drainage ditch that ringed the fields. If a paratrooper stepped into a ditch he sank straight to the bottom.

It was three(ish) miles from the beach to the exit of the causeway. Besides flooding the Germans had also removed the trees. There were 20mm cannons at the exits of the causeways to stop the advance off the beach. Block the causeway by taking out the convoy's lead vehicle and then they could pick off the rest in short order. The Germans were too busy fighting the airborne (ie Lt. Winters attach on the guns at Brecourt Manor) to execute their plan so causalities among those who landed on Utah were in the dozens.

Pointe du Hoc, this is a Normandy battlefield site everyone visits. For every person one sees at Utah or Omaha there will be 500 at Pointe du Hoc. Click on this and the following picture for a better view. Location

It is a moonscape.

Proof that the Germans knew how to mix concrete. We were free to roam Pointe du Hoc so no war stories. Here is the low tech Pointe du Hoc site and this is the high tech Pointe du Hoc site.

Omaha beach, the top pictures are pre-D-Day and bottom are after D-day. (Should've been taking pictures of all the guide's show-and-tell for the get go.) Something I didn't know was that Omaha beach was (and is) a vacation beach. War movies show Omaha as a deserted/empty beach but on D-day there were homes and cottages on the beach. The army would level everything to make room for men & material.

We were at Dog Green, which had the 95% casualty rate in the first two waves. The sea and the sand was red with blood. Officers were smart enough to removed their insignia so the Germans couldn't target them but the only way to communicate was with hand signals due to the noise. So the Germans just looked for the one giving signals and shot them.

One veteran told the guide about D-day +1. He (and other) went down to the beach/water to replace their damaged uniforms with a the uniform of a dead soldier. The part of the war that gave him nightmares was that he didn't save the dog tags of the soldier's uniform he took.

There are more homes and the road is wider but the beach hasn't changed. It's amazing how fast the tide goes in an out. 35 minutes before this picture was taken the water was were the people were standing. Was standing at German pill box which was taken out by a navy destroyer. This pill box was setup to fire up and down the beach.

The survivors of the landing took cover against the bank up to the road. Soon realized they could die on the beach or die trying to get off the beach. There was razor wire and land mines on the other side of the road. One guy would take the Bangalore and run toward the wire until shot. The next would pickup the dropped Bangalore and advance until he was shot. Eventually an opening was blown in the wire.

Guide told a story of a soldier shot 3 times in head, once in the leg and with a broken jaw who made it to the top of the bluff where he was knocked unconscious and thrown into a ditch by an explosion. When he came to, he was too hurt to call for help. Fortunately he was next to the road and sharing the ditch with a dead German. He used the German's gun to shot at a passing ambulance to get their attention. The guide had a picture of him, as an old man, standing next to the ditch.

The last stop of the day was the American Cemetery. Could only spend 45 minutes there which was not enough time.

Google Maps Track - Vacation Day 5

To view GPS track in Google Earth
Click This Link and Select Download
In Google Earth Open 'My Places'
Click: 'IMPORT KMZ FILE'
Click: 'Open File...'
Select Downloaded KMZ file: 20100630.kmz

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