The Trip Part I - Normandy

In the next couple of posts I'll quickly recap some parts of my trip. (Hey it's my freakin' blog and I get to post on whatever subject I want!)

The story begins when we landed at Charles de Gaul Airport. From there we met up with old friends and drove off to Caens, Normandy, birthplace of Guillaume le conquerant (aka William the Conqueror.) The term Normands is derived from the words "north men" and refers to the fact that this area was settled by viking tribes in the times of Charlemagne. Besides October 14th 1066, another important date in Normand history is June 6th, 1944 aka D-Day. And so after lunch of Oysters, Tartifette and other French delicacies, we drove to Courseulles-sur-Mer where the Canadian army landed. The beach is also famously known as Juno beach. In all there were 5 coordinated beach landings, two operations by the American troops, two by the Brits and one by the Canadians.

Here's a picture of an old WW II bunker located near the Juno beach memorial (thanks to our travelling companion Claudi for the photos):

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We then crossed the grass covered dunes to discover a spectacularly wide beach. We arrived at low tide and it took us a full 15 minutes to walk to the edge of the water.

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The precise timing of the D-Day landing is legendary. The Allied Forces wanted to land at high low tide in order to avoid hitting mines in the English Channel and wanted a full moon to increase visibility of pilots flying overhead.

Getting back to our trip - we noticed that the beach was dotted with currious little mounds that resembled squirted out toothpaste. (They also resembled somthing else, but they we clearly made of sand.) There must have been millions of these mounds across the entire width of the beach.

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Upon closer inspection, each mound was invariably located near a small borrow hole. These were probably the remains of some creature that mines the sand for nutrients. Here is a closeup:

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Anyone out there know the mysterious animal that created these miniature formations?

OK I'll leave the story here. Next up is Bretagne.

(Here's a link to fellow Canuk Larry Moran and his take on D-Day.)

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Actually the allies landed at low tide so most of the mines and beach obstacles would be exposed and the engineers would be able to clear them. Plus the incoming tide would tend to float off any beached landing craft. Even though this meant the attacking troops had more distance to cover.

Quite a few years ago as a school child I rode the train from Boulogne to Paris. Looking out of the window I could see hundreds of small (say around 20 feet wide) ponds alongside the track. The teacher accompanying us explained that section of track was a favorite target of the RAF and USAAF during the run up to D-Day. Hundreds is an understatement.

By NoAstronomer (not verified) on 07 Jul 2008 #permalink