Normandy Wrap Up

OUR NORMANDY EXPERIENCE INCLUDING D DAY ACTIVITIES

MEMBERS OF THE 15 WW2 VEHICLE ANZAC CONVOY 2009 LANG KIDBY EXPEDITION

LOVED EVERY MOMENT OF IT!
Article written by Karen Bracken 7th June 2009 (for more details see www.anzacconvoy.blogspot.com)

A visit to Normandy needs to be at least a week’s duration. Get yourself into some “digs” in Bayeux and rent a little run around. Come for the week long celebrations 1-7 June. Most of the villages in the area are twinned with an English village and hold relevant memorial services related to acts of bravery, liberation, outstanding military events and famous battles associated with the liberation of France from German occupation in WW2. If you can spend a week prior to “D Day” week familiarizing yourself with the terrain and glancing through the museums your trip would be even better.

This was our first ‘Normandy experience’ and it’s certainly wonderful to be able to say we did it in a 1942 Chevy 4X4 SWB troop carrier of the type used in WW2. We visited many of the museums, cemeteries, bunker sites, camps, beaches, townships and battlefields, all poignant reminders of the horrors of war.

There are so many activities going on leading up to and including “ D Day” that you need to do a prior check of appropriate websites and choose which you would like to be a part of. A Sat Nav and accurate map of the area is essential.

Make this summertime period your preferred time to visit. Villagers are encouraged to beautify their gardens and homes. Pro French sentiment is obvious with flags flying from their houses with some even using paint to detail in the red, white and blue theme. (We only noticed one Australian flag flying from a window.) Four flags dominate those flying from public buildings, French, Normandy, US and British.

By sharing the Reine Mathilde campground at Etreham with the British MVT we were able to enjoy good company of like minded vehicle enthusiasts. If it were possible for us to join in any of their planned activities we did so. Many new friendships were forged between us.

Neither of us came with any preconceived experience of the area and as the scale of it evolved we realized that without prior planning to guide us we should just go with any forthcoming offers made from fellow campers.

Our Itinery for the week:

Visit to Port en Bessin where we saw a WW2 motorbike on the beach. Visit to Wrecks museum and later on welcomed (videoed) arrival of BVT members at Etreham camping site
Visit to Grand Camp Maisy the German bunker and later on the German Cemetery
Vierville open air market for military merchandise, met the French contingent in the US camp and Norge. Omaha Beach museum, drive on beach, and saw Willem Poelsma and family in his duc.
Village convoy trip to Baron sur Odon with British MVT
British paratrooper drop at Pegasus Bridge and sight seeing along the western beaches, sword, juno, gold with Henri de Wailly. Watching the fireworks at Port en Bessin
Arromanches beach with the Normandy Veterans Association and Asnelles. D Day banquet at the Chateau de Amaye sur Seulles
US Paratrooper drop at St Mere Eglise with Henri de Wailly
Bayeux Cathedral

Thankfully, we had good, clear, sunny days until the deluge around 4.30 pm on D Day itself. If it’s normally “raining, or thinking about it” in Normandy, we were blessed.

It’s the little extraordinary things which happen and “make” it for you, like the presentation of two clips full of spent 303 cartridges given to us by Jeffrey Wilson MVT of Somerset. Jeffrey wanted to give back the bullets which were marked “small arms factory No 2 Footscray, Melb, Aust” on them.

Also, we kept a mock auction going with Dick Shepard MVT for his Pioneer Chicago Generator, which he’d thrown on top of his “fixed” load of equipment on the GMC.

What about the lunch break we shared with a group of US visitors who were amused that they had “bum rushed“ our table. Turned out to be Major Ted Deguzman (AF) and his son, from a B52 command and Dan Caster a former pilot and others.

Or, accidentally coming across the French contingent camped in the US camp where they had a totally original WW2 field hospital set up on display. We were very surprised to once again bump into Serge Levy there who most generously chauffeured us around the camp in his Dodge command car.

Sadly, as is a sign of the harsh economic times, numbers were down on the former anniversary year in 2005. Serge said “5 years ago the sight was full!” It was virtually empty. Preston Isaac of the MVT said of the 298 members coming, 235 had registered.

There was no shortage of veterans around. There was a large number of British Veterans to meet and thank at Pegasus Bridge and also assembled on D Day at Arromanches for the address by the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. We met leading seaman Royal Navy, Ron Black and petty officer Les Stuart, also Richard Paxman from the diesel room. One veteran told us “5 years ago when we were here we were completely surrounded by people coming up and congratulating us and wishing us well, and this time there’s one or two like yourselves.” Ken Howes and Frederick Wright were two other veterans who we met at the German Cemetery.

We’d had plenty of warning that traversing the “beaches” area on D Day would be extremely restricted due to road blocks strategically placed for the Presidential visit by Barrack Obama.

Sadly, we missed the dawn vigil on the British/Canadian beach at Asnelles attended by 30 MVT vehicles. We did however convoy to Asnelles and then onto the beach convoy to Arromanches for a huge assembly of vehicles including the146 WW2 bikes for the “Guinness World Record” attempt. A huge crowd of Normandy Veterans (more than there were seats for) were waiting for Gordon Brown to address them.

I learnt a lot about a British Veteran in a short while as I caught him sitting alone for a moment. Ex NCO Sergeant Major Richard Jones 85 years old from Shropshire, UK, was a D Day veteran. At the time he was with 282 GT Coy 8th Beach Group and landed at Juno Beach on 6th June 1944. Volunteering at 19 years of age, he was put in the 3rd Canadian Division to come over for engagement in France. Dick was a driver and remembers driving a 3 ton K5 Austin 4x4 ammunitions carrier. Three months before the end he went to Burma with the Scots Guards. It was a privilege to meet you Dick, thanks for coming over to help us commemorate this event, all the very best to you.

A wonderful D Day banquet at the Chateau d’Amaye at sur-Seulles owned by Anna and Frank put the finishing touch on a fun filled week touring around in Yankee Joe! A 1944 D Day theme complete with a banquet of pheasant decorated meat pressings, wines, cheeses and red, white and blue meringue pyramid will forever remain in our thoughts.