A moment of reflection by some great minds of the past.(and present)
“Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.”
– William Shakespeare
“Cry “Havoc,” and let slip the dogs of war”.
– William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar (Act III, Scene I)
“Most world religions denounced war as a barbaric waste of human life. We treasured the teachings of these religions so dearly that we frequently had to wage war in order to impose them on other people.”
― Jon Stewart
“Patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched.”
― Guy de Maupassant [My Uncle Sosthenes], Complete Short Stories
“When you can flatten entire cities at a whim, a tendency towards quiet reflection and seeing-things-from-the-other-fellow’s-point- of-view is seldom necessary.”
― Terry Pratchett, Small Gods
“It is straightforward—and never mind, for now, about plagues and famines: if God existed, and if he cared for humankind, he would never have given us religion.”
― Martin Amis, The Second Plane: 14 Responses to September 11
“I hated that the soldier doll had my name. I mean, please. I didn’t play with him much. He was another Christmas present from my clueless grandparents. One time when they were visiting, my grandpa asked me if G.I. Joe had been in any wars lately. I said, “No, but he and Ken got married last week.” Every Christmas since then, my grandparents have sent me a check.”
― James Howe, Totally Joe
“If women ran the world we wouldn’t have wars, just intense negotiations every 28 days.”
-Robin Williams
“War doesn’t determine who’s right – only who’s left.”
-Bertrand Russell
“War is hell, and I mean to make it so.”
– William Tecumseh Sherman
“You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your tricks of war.”
-Napoleon
“You can’t say that civilization don’t advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a new way.”
-Will Rogers
“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
― Albert Einstein
“God created war so that Americans would learn geography.”
― Mark Twain
“War is much too serious a matter to be entrusted to the military.”
– Clemenceau
“History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.”
-Edward Gibbon
“History is littered with wars which everybody knew would never happen.”
-Enoch Powell
“We decry violence all the time in this country, but look at our history. We were born in a violent revolution, and we’ve been in wars ever since. We’re not a pacific people.”
-James Lee Burke
“Peace?’ said Vetinari. ‘Ah, yes, defined as period of time to allow for preparation for the next war.”
― Terry Pratchett, Unseen Academicals
“Joshua, cynicism is the only reasonable response to the antics of humanity.”
― Terry Pratchett, The Long War
“The nice thing about artificial intelligence is that at least it’s better than artificial stupidity.”
― Terry Pratchett, The Long War
“The slightest acquaintance with history shows that powerful republics are the most warlike and unscrupulous of nations.”
-Ambrose Bierce
Sites/Topics covered in this post:
- Dead Man’s Corner Museum
- Omaha Beach
- Utah Beach
- Sainte-Mère-Église
- Longues-Sur-Mer Battery
- Les Roches de Ham
Go-Date: Day 152, Sunday, June 23
Lesson Learned: It’s a curious fact that civilization advances through a willingness to wage war. I’m afraid that fact may remain until the last war which will either control-alt-delete humanity or extinguish it.
Normandy is so lovely I can’t imagine it being ravaged by warfare, but it was. I have little optimism for lessons learned by mankind. I can’t imagine the feelings of those men and women caught in the center of the Normandy invasion, but I can salute them for their bravery.
Take a left at Dead Man’s Corner
We began our day at this museum, and it was perhaps the best we’ve seen. This was the start of a day that brought to life the events and horrific stories of “The Longest Day”, “Saving Private Ryan”, “The Big Red One”, “Patton”, and “Up From the Beach”.
This is the 75th anniversary of D-Day, though we missed the festivities by about 2 weeks. The area still had French and American flags flying from most of the houses and businesses (along with Canadian and to a lesser extent British Union Jacks). Ah, the French and English….they have such a complex relationship. There were jeeps and vintage military vehicles on every road with Frenchmen dressed as G.I.s giving tours of all the important sights. This is truly an area to see and remember those brave people who did what was right, not what was easy.
The Dead Man’s Corner Museum is located in the house at the intersection near Sainte-Come-du-Mont. The museum holds an impressive collection of authentic WWII German and American airborne artifacts directly related to the Normandy invasion. The gift shop actually feels like you walked into a 1965 Army-Navy store. The name comes from the fact that an American tank was destroyed with the commander (Lt Walter T. Anderson) hanging half way out of the turret. Things were so hot and heavy with fighting nobody pulled this poor guy out and buried him for 3 days. The tank was disabled at an intersection in front of a farm house that GIs used as a landmark to give directions “Take the right fork in the road at Dead Man’s Corner” gruesome, but true.
It also has a theatre called the D-Day Experience which has multiple dioramas, a paratrooper flight simulator, and a holographic pre-jump briefing. We thought they were very well done. It’s a small place, but the story is compelling and you get a better feel for the war than you do just looking at old uniforms and battlefield weapons. The most interesting thing about our visit was the place was full of Germans. I didn’t talk to them, but I’m curious to how they felt seeing all this memorabilia first hand. Was it regret? Was it embarrassment? Was it, “We should have done this better?” Was it “I’m so glad the war turned out as it did?” Was it “I hope the world has learned a lesson?” Was it “So this is where Grandpa died?” I don’t know, but I found it curious. Check it out.
Omaha Beach
The landing at Omaha Beach went badly from the start and by the end of June 6, the Americans had lost 3,000 men, with as many more wounded or missing. “Went badly?” it was a fucking catastrophe, which was fortunate the Americans weren’t cast back into the sea. But they did secure a foothold on the continent through which a narrow corridor was established to get supplies and equipment ashore. There’s an American Cemetery located here (we didn’t have time to visit, so I guess we can revisit Arlington National Cemetery when we get back home), where 9,386 graves are marked with perfectly aligned white marble headstones. You can also visit the Memorial, the Garden of the Missing, and a viewing platform that overlooks Omaha Beach.
In the Overlord Museum (the name given to the overall invasion effort), 10,000 artifacts including vehicles, tanks, and cannons are used to create realistic life-sized replicas of scenes from the D-Day landings and the subsequent operations culminating in the liberation of Paris.
Utah Beach
Compared to Omaha Beach, Utah Beach was almost easy. The spear-head unit to hit this beach was the 4th Infantry. Bombers and artillery from ships offshore had pounded the German coastal defenses for hours and disabled much of their firepower. The reduction in enemy fire secured their landing during low tide, creating conditions that made it possible to safely land all but two tanks by revealing the placements of “Czech Hedgehogs,” “Rommel’s Asparagus,” and other landing obstacles, some of which can still see in the dunes. By 1pm, the beach was secured and the 4th Infantry joined up with the airborne units inland.
A former bunker of the Atlantic Wall has been incorporated into the Museum of the Landings, where you can see a B26 Marauder bomber and an LVT-2 Water Buffalo, the landing craft used to offload supplies from the cargo ships off the coast. The exhibits show the operations at Utah Beach, and also the entire Operation Overlord offensive.
Sainte-Mère-Église
Inland from Utah Beach, and crucial to the success of the entire operation, paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Division began the invasion well before dawn in and around the town of Sainte-Mère-Église. Like their British counterparts their job was to establish a western line to protect the liberated territory from being retaken by German ground forces and hold strategic bridges.
The town’s church still re-creates the scene villagers awoke to, with paratrooper John Steele suspended from his parachute on the church roof. Eventually, a German soldier responsible for guarding the church didn’t just kill Steele, but helped him to safety and took him prisoner. I’m not sure how, but Steele escaped and rejoined his unit during the rest of the offensive. Its interesting to see the mannequin dangling from the church spire in a parachute. I’m glad it wasn’t me. I don’t mind heights, but that was ridiculous.
The Longues-sur-Mer battery, situated between the Omaha and Gold landing beaches, consists of four gun installations and were used by the German troops on D-Day. Well, sort of. Heavy bombing of this site by French and U.S. ships on the night before the D-Day landings made getting any sort of use out of these guns. The German crew of about 120 survivors surrendered the next morning. The Longues-sur-Mer battery is the only German coastal defense battery to be classified as an official historic monument, though you find them scattered up and down the coast. We even found a few WWII German machine gun emplacements when we were in Crete.
Les Roches de Ham
Les roches de Ham is a 105m high cliff towering over the river Vire. We think it provides a view of one of the most beautiful valleys in the world. Not just France, or Europe, but everywhere in the world. It is amazing. From this spot, you get an unobstructed panoramic view of the surrounding countryside, farms, corkscrew country road, and the lazy, fish-stocked, winding river.
There are lots of hiking trails you can take from this observation point (there is a free parking lot for you) perfect for exploring the countryside around St-Lo, on foot on a bicycle or on horseback. The rocks of Ham are a shale wall, that you would never have found if some local hadn’t pointed it out for you. It’s not on your typical tourist itinerary.
The road is narrow and winding, and hides around a bend that you’d pass if driving more than 30 Kph. Pull into the parking lot, find the unmarked trail and go down to the first promontory. And there, the view is breathtaking. A little further, there’s a creperie that’s open 6 days a week, but was closed on the Sunday we visited. Evidently in French “Ham” means to meander, which is the perfect thing to do on a visit.