I learned two things this summer. First, don't try and take a five year old to see the Bayeux Tapestry in France and second, don't try to take a five year old to see the Bayeux Tapestry in France in August. Disregarding the conventional wisdom about never holidaying in France in August when the entire country is supposed to be on vacation and figuring that the major crowds would have long since left the D-Day sites, the intrepid Toops family once again devoted a family vacation to military museums and monuments, this time in Normandy, fifty years later. If you thought that all the celebrations for D-Day, or Le choc as the French call it, took place on 6 June, guess again. Between 6 June and 25 August which marked the liberation of Paris, almost every town or village in Normandy was celebrating their deliverance from the Germans. Hotel rooms were usually at a premium, though showing up with 5 and 8 year old daughters clutching a doll or stuffed animal was sometimes helpful in softening the heart of an occasional desk clerk who somehow could manage to find just one more room. Avranches was the starting point of our Normandy expedition. Gamers will recognize the city from S & T's Cobra (1977); in fact, we stayed in hex number 0821. The publicity people had been quite active as museums, historic sites and visitor's centers throughout the area sought to capitalize on the fiftieth anniversary of the D-Day landings. "In 1944 we said 'Thank You". In 1994 we say 'Welcome'" was one of the more prominent slogans. There was, of course, a great deal of commercialization of the anniversary (the usual plates, cups, mugs, post cards and even T-shirts) but I didn't mind. Fifty first and fifty second historical anniversaries get little recognition and for most of the actual participants this would truly be their "last hurrah". Many of the D-Day veterans won't be around much longer to again receive the accolades they deserve. The municipal museum of Avranches contained an interesting display of propaganda posters, both Vichy and Free French, while the city's major monument is a large memorial to General Patton, complete with Sherman tank. And yes, I did buy a commemorative T-shirt depicting an American GI's helmet, a dove and "Avranches Liberte'." One of the best souvenirs to buy is the road map sized brochure published by the Institute Geographique National entitled Jour J, 6.6.44 (D-Day, 6.6.44). It depicts not only the Allied Order of Battle but also the Allied positions as of midnight on 6 June. Commemorative monuments and sites are also shown, making it an indispensable travel aid. John Keegan's book Six Armies in Normandy was also quite prevalent. From Avranches, we then headed for Utah Beach, the word "beach" having an electrifying effect on my two daughters. Having been raised on a steady diet of The Sound of Music, they do know that the Nazis are the "bad people," even at Utah Beach. (Such education by video does have its draws as when my then 4-year old commented that "'Apoleum was defeated at Waterloo by the captain from the Sound of Music." She did have a point though.) Their tolerance for the military museums, however, is quite good and they both have an attention span which is about 45 minutes longer than my immediate family relatives. They may walk with a little less spring in their step, and their ranks are growing thinner, but let us never forget: When they were young, these men saved the world. -- Bill Clinton, 6/6/94 Our first stop was the broad, gently sloped beach itself, this time filled only with holiday makers rather than landing craft, tank obstacles, mines and German soldiers. Several concrete bunkers still remain, nestled amidst the small sand dunes that mark the edge of the Normandy coast. A museum whose centerpiece is an Allied landing craft laboriously crawling its away up the sandy shore, depicts what is both good and bad about so many war museums in the area. The volume of incidental detail is overwhelming (matchbooks, dollar bills, small arms, uniforms, rations, etc.) yet what is often missing are displays that convey to the visitor the tactical means and strategic purpose of the Normandy landings. As a former US National Park Service ranger (historical types), I know that it is possible to create displays that can simply but effectively convey the finer points of strategy, tactics or even 19th century fortification without resorting to overblown descriptions, archaic technical terms or "artifact overload". Unfortunately, many of the museums dealing with D-Day are simply collections of "things" that do little to "interpret" or explain the event(s) to the visitor. Sitting atop the dunes or walking along the shoreline were, I found, more effective ways to appreciate the events and the struggle that occurred here a half century ago. Utah Beach suffers from a degree of commercialization (the restaurant was pretty good though) but does avoid the "monument shock" typical of so many American Civil War Battlefield parks. The most "shocking" monument at Utah Beach has to be the pink granite stele recently erected by the US Government -- shocking in its cheapness of design and execution. Whilst my own personal taste in monuments runs to the 19th century Wilammine style, there is simply no excuse for a monument with poorly cut, shallow lettering, attendantly bad guilting and crudely carved wreaths. We have housing ornamentation in Bahrain that looks nicer. Surely our veterans deserve better than this. Movement through bocage country in Cobra is two movement points per hex, a movement rate which is perhaps understated if you've seen the real thing. The old, well-maintained hedgerows are as wide as my car (a Russian LADA) and can be twice as tall. For a proficient German 88 gun crew, a Sherman tank traveling on a narrow road flanked by hedgerows must have had a striking resemblance to a target in a carnival shooting arcade. There are some things in military history that simply have to be seen to be fully understood. The bocage country of Normandy is one of them. In contrast to the beaches, which have had to endure creeping post war urbanization, Pointe du Hoc has changed but little since the US Army Rangers scaled the nine story high cliffs to silence the 150 mm German gun batteries. Heavily scarred and cratered by the extensive air and naval bombardment, Pointe du Hoc looks very much like the First World War battlefields of eastern France. Wandering amidst the broken concrete rusting metal and rubble, now very much intermixed with earth and grass, my eldest daughter and I finally began to appreciate the magnitude of the struggle to land on the Norman coast. Yet memorials and landscapes portray but only one part of warfare. To see the human cost of D-Day, one needs to visit one of the many military cemeteries located nearby. We chose the American one at Colleville-sur-Mer, located at the top of the bluffs which provide a commanding view of Omaha Beach. Normally one doesn't have much of a problem visiting a military cemetery in Europe but we were totally unprepared for the masses of people, tour buses and cars at Colleville-sur-Mer; we found a parking space about 1 km from the entrance. These were not, however, people with a holiday air, Voices were hushed and muted, visitors stayed on the paths and walkways and thoughts of war and remembrance predominated. West of the city of Saint Lo, near Marigny, is a small German military cemetery which we visited the next day in a pouring rain, which only enhanced its somberness. This time we were the only visitors. Flipping through the visitors book, most of the entries were, naturally enough, in German (a language which I don't read). The English comments were invariable of the "war is terrible - may it never occur again' variety. Somehow, though, I felt something was missing from such thought; these were, after all, soldiers who fought for one of the most evil regimes in modern history. As we left, I penned the following into the following into the visitors book: "I neither respect nor admire the cause for which these men died, but as a soldier I respect them for the final sacrifice they made". And then I left 50 francs for upkeep of the cemetery. Our tour of Normandy drew to a close with a visit to Bayeux, primarily to see the famous tapestry. However, a hour's wait to see the tapestry was enough to try the patience of my 5 year old, so we skipped the wall hanging (I guess I'll just read the book instead) and off we went to look at the dioramas and life-size models of Norman knights. After a discussion of the finer points of chain mail, we both agreed that the models were wearing "armored 'nighties!" Bayeux's Musee de la Bataille de Normandie was hosting a special exhibit of the Royal Air Force's role in the Normandy campaign but as for the rest of the exhibits, they were rather like the museum at Utah Beach -- too many items and not enough explanation. I did enjoy looking at a German tank destroyer which was part of the museum's outdoor exhibits -- courtesy of the Swiss Army! From St Lo, we followed the Cobra map to Vire, Domfront and over to Alencon, where we viewed the city's old chateau which was formerly used by the Gestapo. Our Normandy adventure was coming to a close and besides, we had a train to catch to Sicily -- and who knows, perhaps another article on gaming your way through Europe, family style. Back to Cry Havoc #9 Table of Contents Back to Cry Havoc List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1994 by David W. Tschanz. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com