Batterie Longues-sur-Mer and the American Cemetery

After visiting Port Winston, we ventured a little further up the coast to Longues-sur-Mer to see the remains of the Germany battery located there. The battery formed part of the German defenses during the Allies invasion of Normandy. There are four 150mm guns on the site, along with munitions bunkers, places for smaller machine guns, and a large command post. The site was bombed by the allied air forces, but it remained surprisingly intact.


Not all of them were intact...


You can see how huge those 150mm guns are...


You can also see Port Winston a bit farther up the coast.


We left Longues-sur-Mer and continued on up the coast to our last stop of the day, the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach. This cemetery holds the remains of nearly 10,000 Americans who lost their lives in the war, most of them during the D-Day invasion. It is beautifully situated on a cliff overlooking the beach.


There are several American cemeteries spread over Europe, but this is the first one we've visited. Jeff remarked that the combination of French aesthetics and the American ability to portray the cost of victory was exceedingly powerful. I'd have to agree.


The day wasn't all WWII sightseeing. We did get a bit of French countryside tourism at the end of the day when the tiny road we took to get back to our hotel led us to this scene:


We had to wait about 10 minutes for the cows and the farmer to clear the road, but we didn't mind. The tasty French dairy products are totally worth it!