[Shag]

Originally Posted by Strongside

I was fortunate enough to visit Normandy last April with my wife. We did the full D-Day tour, and then did a guided "Band of Brothers" tour where we followed in the footsteps of Easy Company from Normandy to Bastogne. It was incredible, awe-inspiring, and humbling.

Setting foot in the places where so many men gave their lives in the fight against true, unconditional evil is something I'll never forget.

We had visited Oscar Schindler's factory and Auschwitz in Poland just days prior, so seeing first had what these men were fighting for made it all the more impactful.

Pointe Du Hoc was insane. The US Government owns the land, and it is a protected battlefield site – it has literally not changed since the war. The battlefield is littered with craters and bunkers – most of which are riddled with bullet holes on the inside. If you don't know the story of Pointe Du Hoc, look it up. It gives me goosebumps. The 2nd and 5th US Army Ranger battalions assaulted the point, which is a 100+ foot vertical cliff. Even though the site had been under heavy bombing, it was still heavily occupied by the German 352nd. The Rangers climbed the cliff with a ****ING GRAPPLING HOOK and stormed the bunkers. Their reinforcements launched late due to timing issues, and accidentally landed on Omaha, far down the shoreline. This left nearly 300 Rangers pinned against the shoreline with limited supplies and ammo. Days later, when reinforcements were able to work around behind the Nazis, the 2 battalions had been reduced to around 90 men. The bunkers are FULL of bullet holes. The wooden ceilings are charred from flame throwers. It's unreal.

The cemetery at Omaha Beach is beyond words. I have two great uncles from opposite sides of my family buried there, which I knew going in...but I was shocked to see that these two men were buried just 4 graves from one another. They both died on the same day, D-Day, and were the same age. Imagine that. These two guys who never met one another stormed a beach and gave their lives so that their family members could eventually cross paths and make my existence possible. That's incredible.

The most powerful thing we witnessed, without a doubt, was a rendition of the National Anthem at the cemetery. In attendance were about 8 veterans who had fought on the beach. From the vantage point, you overlook the cemetery, and down below...the beach. All of them stood to salute the flag, sobbing. One man was wheelchair bound, and his son and grandson held him upright at his request.

They call these guys the greatest generation for a reason.

I didn't do a formal tour, but did some of the BoB tour on my own, and had the same experience - harrowing, to put it mildly. Pointe du Hoc was absolutely unbelievable - the size and quantity of the craters was insane, and the idea of scaling that cliff is crazy. Walking on Omaha, and seeing the pillboxes still in the bluffs was incredibly humbling - it's almost inconceivable the beach was taken. The feats of that day are truly incredible.