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Normandy and Operation Overlord
In the first minutes of June 6, 1944, just after midnight, soldiers from the British and American airborne divisions, after landing with their Horsa gliders, set foot on Norman territory. His objective: To take two strategic enclaves of vital importance for the allied interests, the bridge over the Orne river and the one over the Caen canal. That would avoid the possibility that the Germans could dynamite them, which would hopelessly delay the advance of the Allied forces. Operation Overlord was on, D-day had begun.
At 5:20 a.m., the German garrison stationed on the cliff of Pointe du Hoc reported the presence of enemy ships near the French coast. It was not until the arrival of the first rays of light that they were able to realize the magnitude of the threat approaching from the sea. The largest fleet of warships in history sailed towards them; shortly after the guns of the destroyers illuminated the line of the horizon and an intense bombardment of all the coast began that turned Normandy into a veritable inferno. That day, thousands of human beings, civilians and military, sacrificed their lives to change the course of the war and the future of History.
Many things went wrong to make it a terribly bloody day, but the huge contingent of men and means of the Allied Army led by General Dwight Eisenhower, as well as the tremendous attrition accumulated by the German hosts, made the invasion finally exit. It was the beginning of the end; But although everyone thought that by Christmas Hitler's troops would have fallen, it would still take almost a year to take Berlin and put an end to Nazism once and for all.
Since then, every June 6, year after year, decade after decade, in all towns in the area where the Battle of Normandy took place, It is celebrated on D-day or liberation day, as many French call it. Some, those who lost loved ones, do so with deep sadness; but most of them, thanks to the fact that over the years the wounds have been closed, with great joy, giving the innumerable programmed acts a didactic and even playful and festive character.
Traveling, Normandy in the XNUMXst century
Taking a trip to visit the Normandy of the landing is highly recommended. From the point of view of the tourist, we are facing a territory with a dreamlike landscape, with immense green meadows full of farms and lush forests. Steep cliffs appear along the coastline, guarding the huge beaches, which reveal hundreds of meters of sand when the tide goes out. All this dotted with a lot of small and neat villages of stone houses that, despite having been practically in ruins after the intense fighting of D-day and the following, were rebuilt as they were, as the black and white photographs of the time of the war that are shown by many corners of the region.
Touring these towns and the strategic points of the conflict, which the French preserve with pride, the visitor is soaked in history and learns what human beings are capable of doing to their fellow men, a whole lesson for what happened throughout the world. world in those turbulent years it will not be repeated.
The whole area is full of monuments, commemorative plaques, museums ... always mentioning the events and heroic acts that took place; ruins of German military enclaves; cemeteries of the fallen in combat separated by nationality. I assure you that it is impossible not to get excited by being located in all these places knowing the chilling events that took place there.
Historical reenactment and classic military vehicles
If we organize our journey to coincide with the dates of the D-day celebration, as we have done, the journey comes to life; And if, finally, as is also the case, we are interested in all the old pots that move on wheels, we are in an ideal situation.
And it is that, in addition to all the parties that are celebrated in the different locations -in perfect harmony, people of all nationalities sharing space-, conferences, visits to museums, tributes, exhibitions of all kinds are organized: Naval, aerial, of paratroopers, even with radio-controlled models; parades, military parades and, most importantly for us, and surely for our readers, it is allowed to contemplate closely all the vehicles protagonists of the contest.
It is amazing the quantity and variety of machinery that we can discover in all corners of the region. Normandy is the meeting point for all those collectors and owners of a vehicle linked to the history of the Second World War.
It's a jump in time Like we took a trip with Marty McFly in his De Lorean and we would have selected in his time machine any of the days that followed the landing day. Military camps with all their paraphernalia, tents, kitchens, mobile water tanks, latrines and all kinds of vintage utensils are set up on the entrance esplanades to the villages.
Trenches and sandbag empties are built for cannons and machine gun nests. And most impressive, you can see a constant movement of Jeeps, motorcycles, troop and material transport trucks; they even go there with armored cars and tanks, something absolutely incredible. Of course, all the participants are rigorously dressed in the uniforms and costumes of the historical moment in question.
As we moved through the typical landing sites, curiosities and anecdotes arose, such as when we were driving around in our car -by the way, little integrated into the environment, a red Seat Ibiza- and a lean individual dressed as a military policeman at the controls of a Harley Military Davison stopped us to give way to a convoy of GMC trucks loaded with infantrymen with their regulation equipment; or when we saw an old Dodge sedan pass by in the typical olive green color with a fake high command inside, escorted by several Jeep Willys sounding their sirens; or when we found on the road that goes down from Vierville Sur Mere to Omaha Beach, one of the old floating bridges that were used to unload all the material from the improvised artificial ports installed on the mainland. Nowadays, some Jeep crossed it remembering that feeling.
One of the key points of the festivities is the small town of Sainte-Mére-Église, a place where one of the main war museums is located and which is also famous for the real event that appears in both the book and the film "The longest day": A part of the 101st American Parachute Division fell by mistake in the middle of the town. Private John Steele was hanging from the bell tower of the church when he hooked his parachute, he survived thanks to the fact that he played dead while he watched as his companions fought with the Germans down in the square. Currently a life-size doll hangs from the same place as a tribute to this man.
Lots of military machinery
Some of the photographs that accompany this text are taken in this famous town, as there was a very good representation of vehicles both in a meadow at the entrance and in the parking lot next to the church, among which the omnipresent Dodge light trucks stood out in their versions WC51 (normal), WC52 (with winch on the bumper), WC54 (ambulance), WC56 (command car) and WC63 (three axles); the Chevrolet G 7107 of 1.5 tons; the indestructible GMC CCKW 352 (short wheelbase) and 353 (long wheelbase) medium trucks; the M3-A1 transport half-tracks and M16s equipped with anti-aircraft machine guns or the charismatic Harley Davison WLA 45 motorcycles.
Also the American tanks Sherman M4 and Destroyer M10; the German light transports Volkswagen type 82 Kubelwagen, derived from the KDF (the first Beetle); some civil cars such as the Citroen 11 and Peugeot 302 that were used by members of the French resistance; and of course, the best known 4 × 4 and representative of all, the Jeep Willys MB, of which there were hundreds of them everywhere, in all its possible versions and configurations. We even got to see a sample of the first three models that were made in 1941 to present them to the contest called by the American army and that Willys Overland finally won. Finally, the rare and rare Willys MA, the Bantam BRC and the Ford GP with four steering wheels that you have seen above.
To conclude, we will tell you that a trip to Normandy it is always a delight. If you do it on the dates close to June 6, an unforgettable experience; and if you are also the owner of a World War II vehicle, a must-see.
