Wednesday & Thursday     On Wednesday morning we left our Gite and drove into Bayeux, Charlie and I explored the World War II Museum and Heather and Patrick spent the morning viewing the Bayeux Tapestry.  Also, a quick stop at the German Cemetery at La Cambe.  Afterwards we drove east to the Vernon-Giverny area and checked into a B&B which is also an apple farm that makes and bottles cider.  On Thursday we had a very much needed restful day visiting Monet's Home and Gardens and doing laundry.....and drinking cider!

Musee Memorial 1944 Bataille De Normandie

M10 Tank Destroyer at museum in Bayeux

German Cemetery at La Cambe

La Ferme des Ruelles, Tilly, France     B&B

Yes, there were Lilly Pads!

Monet's Garden--still beautiful in late September

Tuesday    We started today with a stop at the Graignes' bakery—croissants! Today's plan is to drive a few miles to the village of St. Clair where the 803^rd first saw action. From there we continued south to the Couvains area where Task Force C formed up for the final assault on St. Lo, a major crossroads town. Dad's tank destroyer company and the 115^th Infantry Regiment (29^th Infantry Division) and supporting tank and engineer elements made up the task force. We followed the same road, Rue de Isigny, into St. Lo where we located the intersection where his TD was hit by an 88 round and knocked out.

Photo Dad carried in his wallet all those years!

We then visited the Memorial of La Madeleine, a small museum honoring the 29^th and 35^th Divisions who fought for the liberation of St. Lo. The museum has actually closed for the season but a very nice French gentleman, Jean Mignon, opened for us to visit. Jean was a 14 year old boy in June of 1944 and remembers vividly St. Lo being bombed and the hardships of living in a war torn country and the liberation of the city. He actually thanked us for America and Dad's contribution in liberating his city. It was very touching. AND there it was, the same photo blown up to a large size. We had a copy of the Silver Star certificate and our photos from the Archives. He asked if he might have a copy of the certificate to display, which of course we left with him.

Chapelle de la Madeleine, St. Lo

Jean Mignon and Charlie and I with TD photo 

The Chapelle de la Madeleine was originally part of an old leper-house dating from the 14^th century and is beautifully restored.

After leaving St. Lo, we headed west to two locations which we had GPS coordinates, one a church near and Hill 131 where Dad's unit saw action while supporting the 82^nd Airborne Division and the 8^th Infantry Division in the vicinity of  Mobecq.    The reports stated that Co. B shot the steeple off a church to eliminate a German artillery observer. We found that beautiful stone church, obviously still an active Parish, with a well tended cemetery and a repaired steeple.

The church we found mentioned in the S-3 Reports
and were able to translate military coordinates to GPS

Leaving there we drove to the end of the road on the Cotenten Peninsular---and found beautiful Atlantic views from the highest cliffs in Continental Europe, green pastures, stone fences, hedge rows and many cows and a few sheep.

Lighthouse on end of Peninsular

Beautiful Farmland

Apologies for not posting earlier!  Our Gite is so far out in the countryside that internet is not available and we have yet to find an internet cafe.  Will do better in a couple of days.  Flight from Atlanta to Paris was great, met Heather and Patrick in the airport and took off  in our rental car.  Charlie is reacquainting with driving a stick shift but we haven't suffered any severe whiplash!  We have been around  at least several hundred roundabouts....  The Normandy countryside and villages are beautiful and quaint. 

On the way to Normandy, we drove the general route that Dad's unit followed as he went across France, but in reverse---we drove through the area north of Paris where he fought with the 113 Calvary between 26 August 44 and 1 September 44 their mission being to clean out remaining German units that were left after the fall of Paris on August 25.  We crossed the Seine at St. Germaine en Laye where his unit crossed.

Our arrival day was pretty well spent driving into Normandy and finding our Gite—a small apartment down a single lane which is charming and suits us so well—cows out back and the owner's pigs nearby!  It is located just outside a village called Graignes which has a compelling World War II history—on D Day about 150 paratroopers landed in the flooded fields bordering the village by error and gathered in the village of Graignes.  They were attacked by a SS Battalion and after several days of combat were forced to flee and/or surrender.  The Germans took reprisals on the village people killing many including their priest and murdering all the wounded paratroopers they had captured. 

Sunday we went into Bayeux for a tour of Omaha Beach, the American Cemetery and Point Du Hoc.  We had a great guide from Overlord Tours.  To walk on the beach and see the ground our troops had to cover was sobering to say the least.  Shaun, our guide, provided maps and photographs of D Day to help us visualize the horror the soldiers faced as they came ashore.  My Dad's unit came in on the 13^th of June and we remember him saying that bodies and equipment still were on the beach.  We drove through Vierville directly behind Omaha Beach where his unit assembled after coming ashore.  Later we will go to the nearby village of St.Clair where Dad's unit first saw action. We also visited the German fortifications and gun locations on the high ground above the beach. 

Omaha Beach

Shaun asked the group if we had a special reason for coming to Normandy and of course we told him about Dad.  The other two couples were from Bedford, Virginia, so they were interested in the Bedford Boys.  We told Shaun about the photo of the 803^rd TD Bn. tank destroyer in the intersection at St. Lo being Dad's, asking him if he'd ever seen it......when we stopped at the next location he dug through his maps and photos and pulled out the very same Signal Corps photo that we have and that Dad carried all those years in his wallet.  He occasionally does tours to St. Lo and uses the photo -- he was excited to get some personal information about the soldiers in the TD to use in future tours. 

The time we spent in the American Cemetery was both sad and proud.....over 9000 graves, every state represented, every walk of life and education level, every rank; all buried together none standing out more than the other.  Their names on the side facing West (or home) so from the entrance you only see Crosses or Stars of David, not names or ranks.   We located Dad's Co. B Company Commander, Sidney Vincent from Virginia who was killed in St. Lo.  In our brief time of just wandering around we saw two other graves of soldiers from the 803^rd TD Bn.  The grounds were beautifully landscaped and the Crosses went on forever.

Monday we drove South to Mont Saint Michel and spent several hours touring the Abbey.  The weather changes hourly it seems—heavy rain and wind on the way down, then clearing and warming up, then more wind and rain!  Yesterday, Shaun said in Normandy each day can have three seasons.  We drove back up the coastal road for a while and visited some really charming villages that had their own war stories.   Back “home” late, Pat cooked supper-- tomorrow St. Lo and several locations we know the 803rd was fighting in and around.  

Mont St. Michel

Street in Norman Village

We have very few photographs from World War II.  Small photo on left:  James on left, Scelzi in center and Pereteck on the right.  Dad had written on back:  "Taken somewhere in Germany, 1945, M-36 Tank Destroyer"  The larger photo which must have been taken by Dad:  Dreher, Reuter, Davis, Reardon, Pietro and Scelzi,  Neuburg, Germany, June 27, 1945.

With much research behind us we're heading to Europe to follow in the 803rd's footsteps from Normandy to the Czech Republic.  We are aware that is is going to be a "trip of a lifetime" and is going to be a very emotional experience for us.  From all reports, standing in the American Cemetery above Omaha Beach is a very moving experience.    Dad landed on Omaha with the 803rd on 13 June 1944.

We will spend six nights in the Normandy area then travel through Belgium, southern-most Netherlands, Luxembourg then into Germany & Austria and end up in the Czech Republic.

Several folks have asked us to blog the trip and we are going to try!  I've tried keeping travel journals before and have not been very successful but with four of us traveling hopefully we'll get something posted every few days.

Dad's New Testament with letter to the Armed Forces

from Franklin D. Roosevelt