Normandy - Pointe du Hoc

On monday we rented a van with a driver/tour guide who took all eight of us out to see the beaches of Normandy. This is something that I've wanted to do for a very long time and young Simon is seriously into war stuff and Jamie is very interested in history so it made a lot of sense to do this together.

Ricardo was our driver and he was very knowledgable about the area and gave us a great day of exploring. I also came to understand that this was going to be more of a scouting trip since to see this area properly would take a week and possibly more. Conclusion .... I'm coming back ... going to rent a small gite somewhere and a bicycle and I'm going to do this in-depth one day.

One of the more interesting sites was Pointe du Hoc.

Pointe du Hoc is a clifftop location on the coast of Normandy in northern France. It lies 4 miles west of Omaha Beach, and stands on 100 ft tall cliffs overlooking the sea. It was a point of attack by the United States Army Ranger Assault Group during Operation Overlord in World War II.

On Pointe du Hoc the Germans had built, as part of the Atlantic Wall, six casemates to house a battery of captured French 155mm guns. With Pointe Du Hoc situated between Utah Beach to the west and Omaha Beach to the east, these guns threatened Allied landings on both beaches, risking heavy casualties in the landing forces. Although there were several bombardments from the air and by naval guns, intelligence reports assumed that the fortifications were too strong, and would also require attack by ground forces. The U.S. 2nd Ranger Battalion was therefore given the task of destroying the strongpoint early on D-Day.

Prior to the attack though, the guns were moved approximately 1 mile away; however, the concrete fortifications were intact, and would still present a major threat to the landings if they were occupied by artillery forward observers.

Pointe du Hoc now has a memorial and museum dedicated to the battle. Many of the original fortifications have been left in place. The site is speckled with a number of bomb craters.