By Brian Nelson
The Nelsons made our first trip together to Normandy, France, in 2017. Our second came just two years later, to escort a good friend whose bucket list included an up-close-and-personal encounter with the 1944 D-Day invasion site.
Normandy has been in my blood since 1972. I showed up that year as a young reporter on his first overseas trip, assigned to cover the 30th anniversary of the bloody Battle of Dieppe. In August 1942, 916 Canadians were mowed down in an amphibious landing at the small French coastal town just up the coast from the D-Day Beaches of later fame. It was the Allies’ second disastrous test of Hitler’s Atlantic Fortress. Like Dunkirk to the north before it, poor planning and inadequate support spelled a dispiriting failure.
While the wartime history was certainly compelling, I must frankly admit to getting hooked on the Normandy topography, the food, wine and of course the local apple Calvados.
I wanted to share all this with my buddy, Jack. Having served in the Reserves and being born to a father in the US Army, Jack seemed to feel an obligation to pay his respects and acknowledge a debt to those who served and died there.
And because I speak French, we offered to return with him and his wife Kathy. He quickly accepted, and we met up at Charles de Gaulle in Paris for the short car ride to the coast.
There, with the help of a smart local guide, a retired ex-pat British intelligence officer, the four of us traveled the famous beaches: Omaha, Utah, Gold, Juno and Sword and got a sense of the magnitude of the planning that made it happen, sending US, British and Canadian soldiers ashore in the biggest military operation in history. From that day onward, when Hitler’s forces were pushed back toward Berlin in a bloody year-long campaign, a continent and maybe a world, was saved.
(More below)
Our last stop was The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer. We arrived shortly before 5pm, during the daily ceremony lowering the two US flags.
A large crowd had already assembled in dignified silence as the first Stars and Stripes to our right descended, followed by a short solemn procession of officials, visitors and a special guest, to begin lowering the flag on our left.
Once a journalist, always a journalist, I guess. With my phone above my head, I began to record the second event as best I could. And when it was over, I went in search of the elderly gentleman accorded the ceremonial honor of folding the flags and of taking one of them home.
Here is the edited video of those moments and the interview with that man.
https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/BuYkJR9xRbu08J3td6sQYw.vaopG9UaU0xwsQ8YyoHTKB
Thank you for sharing! 👍
Certainly a moving experience. Let us hope the younger French generation keeps up the memory. You have restored my faith, I haven’t encountered many people who made the trip.
Loved this, thank you Brian!
Thanks for sharing It is important for all of us to be reminded every year what today is REALLY about. And how fortunate we are because of others sacrifices.
Thank you Brian that was an incredible tribute. I was there five years ago and the memory of those long rows of crosses has never left my mind. My father fought Rummel in North Africa during World War II and my mother was a captain in the army and nurse and midwife. I lost a lot of family in World War II so it’s very close to my heart. This trip should mandatory for every American. We’ll done.
Brian, thank you for sharing that wonderful experience you had. Seeing that video was the best way to start this Memorial Day.